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CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



CHILD LIFE AND 
THE CURRICULUM 



By 
Junius L. Meriam, Ph.D. 

Professor of School Supervision 
and Superintendent of 

University Schools 
University of Missouri 



YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoRK 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 
1920 



-»' i 



u5>^'''' 



WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE 
Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson 

YONKEES-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoRK 

2126 Praibie Avenue, Chicago 

Recent developments in home and community 
life insistently demand that children and adults 
be eflScient in all wholesome activities. A higher 
order of service is required, and a more economi- 
cal expenditure of time and energy is impera- 
tive. The elementary school cannot escape 
similar requirements. To present the reason- 
ableness of a considerable change in the curric- 
ulum and to indicate the possibility of greater 
service on the part of the school is the purpose 
of author and publishers in issuing Child Life 
and the Curriculum 



/v- 



^5 iy2Q 



Copyright, 1920, by World Book Company 

Copyright in Great Britain 

All rights reserved 

©C(,A570120 



3.J0 



PREFACE 

Bobby was one of my foremost pupils in a village high 
school. He was fourteen years old but small in stature. At 
times his face was radiant with boyish joy; at other times his 
face bore the serious demeanor of a judge. Bobby was one of 
the very first to reach the playground at recess time. After 
recess he was among the first to open his books for study. He 
played with those younger than himself because the younger 
ones played the more. In the classroom he worked with 
those older than himself because with these his good mind 
had more companionship. He was punctual, regular, and 
reliable in both work and play. 

But before the close of the year a marked change took place 
in Bobby. He played less and studied less. Something was 
wrong with the boy — or with the school. 

As his teacher, I had come directly from a classical college. 
I required all my students to take Latin and mathematics. 
English grammar and history also were emphasized. Hard 
work and vigorous drill characterized my school policy. 

I wondered what caused the change in Bobby. 

One day three of my grade teachers reported to me that 
Fred, known in the school and in the town as " the worst boy 
in school," had been asked by Bobby to join his gang. He 
declined, saying that that gang was too bad for him. My 
Bobby's gang too bad for Fred ? Thus through Fred it was 
discovered that Bobby was the leader of a gang which had 
as one of its purposes : How to make swearing easy. These 
boys held regular and irregular meetings in a little covered 
bridge near the pastor's house. There they exercised in 
their self -chosen art. 

Explanation of the changed attitude of my favorite stu- 
dent was now clear. The usual play at recess had not pro- 
vided the needed activity. The serious school studies had 



vi PREFACE 

not given the boy opportunity for invention, self-direction, 
genuine inquiry into real life. This he craved, and the gang 
became his more effective school. 

I give to Bobby and his gang the credit for suggesting to 
me the problem I have endeavored to present in this book. 
On this problem I have worked in public schools in Wake- 
man, Ohio, Akron, Ohio, and Albany, New York, and during 
the past twelve years in the University Elementary School 
conducted in connection with the School of Education at the 
University of Missouri. (1) We have boys and girls to edu- 
cate; that is, to help them live more fully while boys and 
girls and also to prepare them to be more efficient in later life. 
(2) We have a traditional curriculum in our schools. The 
subject matter of this curriculum consists largely of what has 
been aptly called " tools." Much of this has become obsolete 
because, by its very nature, it is not closely connected with 
the rapidly changing life outside the school. (3) Then, too, 
we have social and industrial life about us, intense in its 
activities, and an environment full of physical phenomena of 
increasing interest to people as our civilization rapidly de- 
velops. Here is a strong appeal to the growing boy and girl. 
The subject matter of the traditional school or the subject 
matter of modern life may be used as the means of instruct- 
ing boys and girls. The former has been predominant in 
most of our schools. The latter is presented in this book 
as the means that should be predominant in elementary 
schools. 

In working out the details of this curriculum the effort 
has been, not, as some critics have erroneously judged, to get 
away from the traditional curriculum, but, on the positive 
side, to get as close as possible to the lives of children as found 
in the home and in the larger community. The subject matter 
of the traditional school and the subject matter of modern life 
must be judged by the same standard : that of helping make 



PREFACE -vu 

boys and girls efficient in what they do in youth and to pre- 
pare them for efficiency in later life. 

Unquestionably, adverse criticism upon the traditional 
curriculum is increasing, and there is evidence of a very 
marked tendency to demand that our public schools give more 
attention to current problems in home, community, and na- 
tional life. In proposing a curriculum in tune with modern 
life, I have earnestly tried to be strictly consistent in theory 
and in practice. My discussion of the curriculum herein 
presented is virtually a report upon the actual conduct of a 
school during the past twelve years. 

I am presenting this theory and practice of the elementary 
school curriculum not as a panacea for all the ills of elemen- 
tary education. Far from it. But I do believe that the 
University Elementary School at Columbia, Missouri, has 
exhibited a very considerable amount of modern school 
practice that warrants the critical consideration of school 
officials, school teachers, and school communities. 

I wish to acknowledge my greatest indebtedness for help 
in this work to the several hundred boys and girls who have 
been subjects in this experiment. Not all of these pupils 
or their parents have been wholly satisfied, but most of them 
have expressed great satisfaction. The results reported in 
Chapter Nineteen give evidence of this. 

Several teachers in this school have contributed much to 
the development of this curriculum : Miss Margaret Sinclair, 
who has taught Grades I and II from the beginning of the 
school; Professor Ernest Horn, of the University of Iowa, 
once teacher and principal of this elementary school; Miss 
Katherine Helm, of Hannibal, Missouri, who was teacher 
of Grades III and IV for five years; Mr. H. H. Meeker, 
principal of the Lowell School in St. Louis, who was closely 
associated with the school for five years; Miss Matilda 
Dreifus, of the Ethical Culture School of New York City, 



viii PREFACE 

who taught Grades V and VI during one year; Mr. R. K. 
Watkins and Miss Katherine Hankins, instructors in school 
supervision at the University of Missouri, for three years 
teachers in this school; and Mrs. Dorothy Jones-Lewis, 
teacher of Grades V and VI for two years. 

I am indebted to the many visitors from all parts of the 
country who have spent some time in the school and have 
made helpful criticisms. Of these I may name : Miss Flora 
J. Cooke, of the Francis W. Parker School of Chicago; Pro- 
fessor W. H. Kilpatrick, of Teachers College; Professor C, A. 
McMurry, of Peabody College for Teachers; Dr. M. B. Hille- 
gas. Commissioner of Education for Vermont; Mrs. Ethel 
Dummer, of the Joint Committee on Education, Chicago; 
Mrs. William Templeton Johnson, of the Francis W. Parker 
School of San Diego, California. 

Among many teachers who have adopted portions of 
the curriculum outlined in this book in their own schools 
and have returned helpful criticisms, I wish to name : 
Miss Nannie Wright, primary teacher in Mexico, Missouri ; 
Miss Susan Dickinson Stone, principal of Ravinia School, 
North Chicago ; Miss Frances Giddings, primary teacher in 
Francis W. Parker School of San Diego, California; Mr. 
Pryor ColHngs, County Superintendent of McDonald County, 
Missouri. 

For helpful professional criticisms I am indebted to Pro- 
fessor W. H. Kilpatrick, of Teachers College ; to Dean Frank 
P. Graves, of the University of Pennsylvania; to Professor 
Ernest Horn, of the University of Iowa ; and to Professor 
C. A. Ellwood, of the University of Missouri. 

I wish to acknowledge great help from Miss Laura Searcy, 
Supervisor of English at the University of Missouri High 
School, for reading the entire manuscript. 

J. L. M. 

Columbia, Missoxjbi 



CONTENTS 

POINT OF VIEW 

CHAPTER p^Qj, 

1. The Pupils' School 3 

Teachers, school officials, and parents need a higher appreciation 
of the nature of boys and girls in their normal activities outside 
of school. 

THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 

2. Justification for the Traditional Curricu- 

lum 21 

The long continuance of the traditional curriculum is due to 
certain educational theories now passing away. 

3. The Traditional Curriculum : Criticism by 

Pupils 39 

Retardation and elimination express the pupils' indictment 
against the traditional curriculimi. 

4. The Traditional Curriculum : Criticism by 

Adults 53 

Scientific investigations, school surveys, educational thought, 
and even local gossip express increasing dissatisfaction with the 
traditional curriculum. 

PRINCIPLES IN THE MAKING OF CURRICULA 

5. The Making of Curricula .... 71 

Curricula should be made scientifically rather than allowed to 
grow out of traditional practice under chance circumstances. 

6. Social Problems and the Curriculum . . 83 

The school should be constituted as a social institution and the cur- 
riculum as a statement of problems of home and community life. 

7. Some Educational Changes .... 109 

Recent changes in many educational institutions encourage the 
making of curricula more intimately connected with the every- 
day life of people, both children and adults. 

ix 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAQH 

8. The Curriculum and Present Needs . .137 

Principle One : The curriculum should contribute primarily to 
enabling boys and girls to be efficient in what they are now 
doing, only secondarily to preparing them to be efficient later. 

9. The Curriculum in Terms of the Concrete 

AND the Practical 171 

Principle Two: The curriculiun should be selected directly 
from real life and should be expressed in terms of the activities 
and the environments of people. 

10. The Curriculum and Individual Differences 207 

Principle Three : The curriculum should provide for great scope 
and flexibility to meet individual differences in interests and 
abilities. 

11. The Curriculum and Organization . . 237 

Principle Four : The curriculum should be so organized that 
it will admit of easy rearrangement of the schedule for any day, 
of the work for any grade, and even of the transfer of work from 
grade to grade. 

12. The Curriculum and Work and Leisure . 255 

Principle Five: The curriculum should lead the pupil to 
appreciate both work and leisure, and to develop a habit of 
engaging in both. 

THE CONTENTS OF A CURRICULUM 

13. School Studies — Observation . . . 277 

Observation, as a school subject, is a study of environment as 
the first step in adjustment. 

14. School Studies — Play 305 

Play has a rightful place in the curriculum as a normal and 
wholesome activity of children. Emphasis should be upon play 
through education, not education through play. 

15. School Studies — Stories 337 

Stories, including music and pictures, provide satisfying and 
uplifting occupation in leisure time. 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER PAQB 

16. School Studies — Handwork .... 367 

Handwork merits an independent and prominent place in the 
cmriculum, and should not be used as a handmaid in the teach- 
ing of other subjects. 

17. Representative Outlines 382 

A few outline studies are presented, representative of a full 
curriculum for eight grades. 

METHODS AND RESULTS 

18. Material, Method, Motive .... 415 

Children's motives, readily found in home and community life, 
should determine the subject matter of instruction and govern 
the methods of teaching. 

19. Educational Measurements .... 441 

The measurement of educational achievement should be in terms 

of life out of school, and should be made when the ability in / 

question functions normally. 

In Conclusion 480 

Appendixes : 

A. Leisure Reading Books ..... 487 

B. List of Books Referred to in Observation Studies in 

Grade I 493 

C. List of Books Used in Study of Transportation . 499 

D. Representative List of Songs Used . . • 503 

E. Representative List of Folk Dances . . . 506 

F. Representative Games ..... 509 

Bibliography 515 

Index 531 



TABLES 



I. Causes of Withdrawal 

n. Causes of Withdrawal 

in. Age as a Cause of Withdrawal 

IV. School Subjects and Time Assignments 

V. School Subjects and Time Assignments 

VI. Reading, Writing, and Language 

Vn. Time Assignments in 1904, 1910, and 1915 

Vm. Distribution of Participation in Recitation 

IX. Number of Books Read by Pupils 

X. Distribution of Grades 

XI. Pupils Above and Below Median 

Xn. Distribution of Grades 

Xm. Distribution of Grades 

XIV. Distribution of Grades 

XV. Distribution of Grades 

XVI. Distribution of Grades 

XVII. Books Read in Different School Grades 

XVni. Books Read in Different School Grades 



. 44 

. 45 

. 45 

. 209 

. 210 

. 210 

. 211 

. 230 

. 363 

. 445 

. 449 

. 451 

. 453 

. 454 

. 454 

. 455 
468-473 
473-478 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



Statement Outline for Chapter One 

A more appreciative attitude toward boys and girls is needed. 

Such books as Being a Boy, Emmy Lou, and A Real Diary of a 

Real Boy make a strong appeal. 
Pedagogical books need such a supplement. 
The active boy is in striking contrast with the inactive school. 

The boy — and his sister — is active out of school ; in school 

he is expected to be quiet. 
The boy is industrious out of school; in school little chance 

for real industry is provided. 
Whittier's Barefoot Boy and most other boys and girls have 
"knowledge never learned of schools"; too many are 
ignorant when measured by school standards. 
Out of school the boy is upright — loyal to his gang ; in school 
he plays his game for schoolroom credit. 
The child's point of view rather than the adult point of view should 
dominate in elementary education. 

The pedantry of the pedagogue is too conspicuous. 

"Ah, take the cash and let the credit go" is the philosophy of 

Omar Khayyam and of most children. 
The individual rather than the average is the boys' and girls' 
standard. 
The problem of elementary education concerns itself with boys 
and girls. 

Approach this problem by thinking of teaching boys and girls 

rather than teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
State the problem in terms of helping pupils to do better in 
their normal activities. 
The University (of Missouri) Elementary School is conducted as a 
study of this problem. 



CHAPTER ONE 

The Pupils' School 

APPRECIATIVE ATTITUDE NEEDED 

" Being a Boy." " One of the best things in the world to 
be is a boy ; it requires no experience, though it needs 
some practice to be a good one. The disadvantage of the 
position is that it does not last long enough; it is soon 
over; just as you get used to being a boy, you have to be 
something else, with a good deal more work to do and not 
half so much fun. And yet every boy is anxious to be a 
man, and is very uneasy with the restrictions that are put 
upon him as a boy. . . . Boys in general would be very 
good farmers if the current notions about farming were 
not so very different from those they entertain. What 
passes for laziness is very often an unwillingness to farm 
in a particular way." ^ The author of this book then pro- 
ceeds to picture the New England farmer driving away to 
attend to various matters in town while he tells his boy 
of many chores and bits of work about the house and farm 
that must be done, and adds that John can play ball after 
he has done up the chores. Being a Boy presents the ex- 
periences of a boy who struggles to be a real boy, and yet 
cannot be so because of the restrictions placed upon him 
by the well-intending but unappreciative father. The 
father sees farm work that must be done ; to him the boy 
is one of several agencies for doing it. The boy sees himself 
as one who would both work and play, but in either case 
enjoy himself. To him the farm is a means of his living. 
Thus throughout the book the author endeavors to arouse 
in adults a more sympathetic appreciation for the boy. 

^ Warner, C. D., Being a Boy, pages 1-21. 
3 



4 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The teacher who reads of this boy will doubtless associate 
with him his sister. 

" Emmy Lou." George Madden Martin pictures the pa- 
thetic struggles of a little girl in a school where girls and their 
brothers were not understood. Nor, indeed, did these little 
girls have any understanding of the school in which they 
were placed. All was new and strange to them. " Emmy 
Lou, laboriously copying digits, looked up. . . ." ^ She 
began to give attention to the little boy across the aisle 
who was making some signs to her. What were digits to 
such a little girl, and why should she copy them? No 
wonder it was a laborious task. Not all little boys and 
girls have the serious struggles of Emmy Lou. Not all 
teachers are so unsympathetic and inconsiderate as those 
with whom Emmy struggled so hard. Not all of the pic- 
tures presented in this story are true to life. They are 
presented for effect. But one cannot read Emmy Lou 
without wondering if most of the school life of little people 
is not too strange for them to be at all understood, and if 
teachers are not more concerned with their teaching than 
with their pupils. 

" A Real Diary of a Real Boy." Henry A. Shute writes 
that while rummaging an old closet in a shed chamber of 
his father's house, he unearthed a boy's record of his daily 
experiences. This record is presented in book form as A 
Real Diary of a Real Boy. Many would judge this diary 
as not the real work of a real boy. There is so much slang 
and so much uncouthness in the behavior that the boy is 
liable to be judged unreal. Throughout this diary the un- 
conventional activities of boys are reported. The account 
pictures genuine characteristics of very active boys. It 
cannot fail to appeal strongly to adults to be more sympa- 
thetic with boys. One may at first be provoked at the 
^ Martin, G. M., Emmy Lou, page 1, 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 5 

boy for fooling his father when his well- intending parent 
thought he would teach the boy to swim. The account 
merely represents what is probably true of many fathers, 
— a failure to keep pace with the development of their 
boys. 

Pedagogical books and appreciation of children. The 
books cited above are three of many of this type.^ Teachers 
and school men are disposed in these days to devote con- 
siderable time to the reading of works on school manage- 
ment, the psychology of the child, pedagogical methods, 
standardized tests, and the like. It is quite generally 
supposed that the development of teaching ability should 
be acquired through the reading and study of these educa- 
tional writings. No reflection is intended upon these books, 
for some are very valuable ; while others are less so. Most 
teachers read too few of them and do too little thinking 
about them. But it is a serious misfortune that so many 
of our teachers read such books only. Appreciation of 
children must be developed through a more direct study 
of children themselves, and through books which are less 
conventional and pedagogical in the description of children, 
but are more direct in the portrayal of the naive activities 
of children. The over-serious attitude too frequently de- 
veloped by reading strictly pedagogical books is a misfor- 
tune. Books of the type suggested above are needed to 
quicken the rank and file of teachers to a more ready under- 
standing and appreciation of the normal activities of pupils. 

THE ACTIVE BOY AND THE INACTIVE SCHOOL 

The active boy — out of school. A real boy comes near 
to illustrating perpetual motion, provided this boy has 
none of the restrictions placed upon him as a boy. Look 

^ A partial list of such books is given at the close of this chapter. 



6 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

for boys in the back yards, in the alleyways, in vacant 
lots; look for them in living rooms, on the playgrounds, 
in public places. Wherever these boys are found they are 
active in doing something. In his study of The Boy and 
His Gang, Puffer has pointed out that between 85 and 90 
per cent of the interests of boys are in physical activity. 
Boys upon the city streets explain their pleasure in teasing 
the policeman in the words, " just to see the ginney chase 
us." It is complimentary rather than derogatory to boys 
and girls of elementary school age to wish them to be, first, 
well-developed little animals. Physically they are active; 
but they are more than animal. They show by their activi- 
ties that they are mentally no less active. As Warner has 
said, the greatest thing in the world to be is a boy, but 
he is uneasy with the restrictions placed upon him as a 
boy. 

In school, the boy cannot be so active. The repression 
of the school is the depression of the real boy, and there is 
very much repression in most schools. The very four walls 
of the schoolroom have a repressing influence upon most 
boys whose work must be done within those narrow limits, 
when the boy by nature demands greater liberty. Even 
the school grounds are too confining. The strait-jacket 
school desk, firmly screwed to the floor, is not a comfortable 
seat for most children. The arrangement of these desks 
in coordinate rows gives to the average boy a sense of being 
greatly restrained. It is probable that this stationary desk 
is as much out of place in the schoolroom as in the living 
room at home. Freedom of physical movement is an in- 
alienable right of school children, so far as such movement 
does not infringe upon the rights of others. Further, how 
much real activity is provided in the work of the school- 
room.'' The usual arithmetic might provide much mental 
activity for adults ; most pupils see in it little opportunity 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 7 

for mental activity, especially when compared with the 
activities of boys engaged in their normal pursuits out of 
school. The content of arithmetic calls largely for passive 
learning rather than active thinking. In the usual recita- 
tion little provision is made for real activity, especially 
spontaneous activity, which is much more effective than 
that in response to questions and directions. The tradi- 
tional school work is restrictive rather than conducive to 
activity. It is so much in contrast to the free life of boys 
and girls out of school, that there is little wonder that Emmy 
Lou found everything so strange and uninteresting. 

The industrious boy — out of school. Boys like to play ; 
so do girls. Boys and girls like to work, too, if that work is 
at all suited to them. " Boys in general would be very good 
farmers. ..." But boys must be allowed to work some- 
what under their own direction. Boys and girls have initia- 
tive, but that initiative is not always in the direction of the 
wish of their parents. Newsboys show a great deal of in- 
dustry in their business. Errand boys go with great speed 
upon their missions. Most boys about the railway stations 
are alert for the opportunity to carry a piece of baggage. 
Some boys and girls overwork when left to their own direc- 
tion. The recent Boy Scout movement is not mere play 
for the boys. That organization is well disposed toward 
work as well as play. The Camp Fire Girls devote them- 
selves industriously to their social activities and to their 
bits of handiwork. Left largely to themselves, unrestricted 
by the particular wishes and directions of adults, children 
are indeed industrious as well as playful. 

In school, pupils are quite frequently judged to be indis- 
posed toward work. The laborious work of Emmy Lou in 
copying digits is typical of much of the work done by pupils 
in the traditional school. Either the child himself lays 
aside his normal nature out of school as soon as he enters 



8 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

the schoolroom, or the school work itself has an unfavorable 
influence upon him. The large amount of attention given 
to devices to induce pupils to study is good evidence that 
pupils are indisposed to do the work assigned them. They 
are not so industrious as when let alone out of school. More- 
over, most of the work done in school is done by specific 
assignment rather than by the initiative of the pupils when 
given an opportunity. Idleness often takes the place of 
industry. The explanation is probably found in the in- 
appropriate work which the pupils are asked to do. Mis- 
chief often takes the place of wholesome play, largely due 
to the lack of opportunity to play. The school is essentially 
artificial for the boy. In such an artificial environment 
the boy is indisposed to be industrious. Naturally, how- 
ever, the boy and the girl are well disposed toward both 
work and play. 

The intelligent boy — out of school. Whittier's barefoot 
boy had 

Knowledge never learned of schools. 
Of the wild bee's morning chase. 
Of the wild flower's time and place. 
Flight of fowl and habitude 
Of the tenant of the wood. 

The newsboy, the errand boy, and the office boy become 
well informed. They have quite an extended and accurate 
knowledge of a great variety of phases of practical life. 
Local politics are known by most boys, and many listen 
to conversation to such an extent that they become quite 
intelligent about national and foreign affairs. Girls know 
much about the household, food, clothing, and society. 
They become well acquainted with all those phases of life 
which immediately affect them. 

In school there is considerable evidence that many boys 
and girls are not up to the " standard of intelligence " de- 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 9 

sired. The traditional curriculum has fallen so far behind 
current life that by the standards of this traditional curricu- 
lum pupils are frequently judged inferior or failures. Re- 
tardation tables in our school reports show that a great 
many fall behind the pace set by those who are equal to 
this particular kind of work. Quite frequently the boy who 
fails in arithmetic is the one who is most quick and accurate 
in making change upon the street. Quite frequently the 
boy who is weak in geography is the one most capable in 
directing strangers about the city streets or acquainting 
them with the industrial activities of the town. Intelligence 
and ignorance have meaning only when specific reference is 
made to points of application. In one of the old readers 
there was a picture of a country boy in the city. He was 
represented as awkward and timid, unable to understand 
his surroundings. A companion picture showed the city 
girl in the country. She was no less ignorant of what 
seemed to be the simplest things in country life. These 
two pictures misrepresent the true intelligence of both boy 
and girl. There is serious danger that we measure the in- 
telligence of our school children by their ability to add or 
subtract. Thus the boy who is normally intelligent in the 
commonplace affairs of active life is by the formal standards 
of school work judged dull and deficient. This need not 
mean that he lacks real efficiency. 

The upright boy — out of school. Records of our juvenile 
courts and reform schools indicate that many boys are not 
upright in their behavior on the streets and in public places. 
But most of these juvenile offenses arise from a relation of 
the child to some form of adult life. It is commonly under- 
stood that within the gang there is the utmost honor among 
boys. Boys are true to one another. There is no " snitch- 
ing " among them. 

It need not be inferred that in school boys are not honorable 



10 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

and upright. But there is a great deal which goes to show 
that boys and girls are so considered. In his Real Diary, 
the Real Boy repeatedly recorded, " beat in speling today," 
The truth was that he " beat " only because he cheated. 
He cheated only because he had been punished for telling 
the truth. Spelling conditions with possible prizes were 
conducive to such an attitude. Spelling was a game to 
him. He played his game as best he could. The school 
itself plays many tricks upon the boy to induce him to work. 
Games are played as means of inducing boys to study num- 
bers. Rewards are given as inducements for study. Much 
of school work suggests that the boy endeavor to do better 
than his mate. There is an inducement to do anything 
one can to surpass, to outdo others, in place of an encourage- 
ment to measure one's ability today with that of yesterday. 
All this is due to the unnaturalness of school. There is 
little inclination for boys and girls to do anything out of 
school that is not just to those with whom they associate. 
Artificial school standards are very liable to lead to an arti- 
ficial school attitude. 

THE CHILD RATHER THAN THE ADULT 

The pedantry of the pedagogue. Too many teachers dis- 
play a pedantry repulsive to pupils. These teachers have 
not the great amount of erudition of which they would be 
pleased to boast. Within the formal and narrow traditional 
studies, there are many very puzzling problems for the 
pupils. It is comparatively easy for the pedagogue to be 
equal to these diflBculties; and in giving explanations to 
the pupils, he may exhibit considerable superiority to them. 
The traditional teacher has every advantage; the pupil is 
handicapped at every turn. This situation and the lack 
of sympathetic appreciation suggested in the previous sec- 
tion have led many teachers to feel themselves above their 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 11 

pupils. The teacher's desk upon the platform has been an 
evidence of this, but fortunately this arrangement is now 
passing. Authoritative and dictatorial management is still 
too prevalent. Instruction which consists largely of assign- 
ing tasks, hearing recitations, giving examinations, and then 
averaging the grades recorded for the pupils' abilities and 
accomplishments is still too commonly regarded as teach- 
ing. There is too little cooperation between teacher as 
leader and pupil as learner. The teacher who is afraid to 
cooperate with his pupils is not equal to his task. This 
pedantic attitude has won in the past. Fortunately it is 
being relegated to the past, but all too slowly.^ 

Cash rather than credit. Children are intensely active 
in the present and for the present. Adults foresee the 
future and work for that. From their own point of view, 
adults arrange problems in arithmetic and grammar which 
they deem worth while for the child. These school subjects 
do not function normally in the young child's life. The 
pupils have, therefore, no motive for study such as the 
adult is inclined to expect of them. In Being a Boy, War- 
ner presents the attitude of the boy on sprouting potatoes 
in a dark cellar in contrast to salting the cattle in the distant 
pasture. The father easily appreciates the value of sprout- 
ing these potatoes. There is a future reference not appre- 
ciated by the boy. On the other hand, the boy sees certain 
immediate gains to him in going to the farther pasture to 
salt the cattle. The father disregards the present interests 
of the boy by answering his requests : " No, they don't 
need salting any more'n you do." Warner hints at a bit 
of good philosophy in the interests of the boy (and his 
sister) by adding : " When I was a boy on the farm, 
and I suppose it is so now, cattle were never salted half 

^ A humorous poem, "The Jolly Old Pedagogue," written by George 
Arnold, adds a touch of adverse criticism upon the pedantic pedagogue. 



12 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

enough." A bit of Omar Khayyam's philosophy is the 
guide for many a boy : 

Some for the glories of this world ; and some 
Sigh for the prophets' paradise to come. 

Ah, take the cash and let the credit go. 
Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum. 

The individual rather than the average as standard. 
There is serious danger that the average, the median, or 
certain norms may be made the standard toward which 
pupils are to work, rather than mere aids to the professional 
student in his study of educational conditions. The adult 
is liable to judge in terms of averages rather than in terms 
of individual change. Standards of intellectual attainment 
and of moral conduct are too generally based on a supposed 
result from certain experiences. Standards should be of a 
flexible nature so as to take account of the stages of develop- 
ment of individuals. There is need of more judgment of 
results on the basis of the individual child's progress. A 
child understands and appreciates this kind of standard. 
He easily compares his present attainment with that of an 
earlier period. The child does not understand the average 
or median of the adult's standard. Comparisons are odious 
to the one less favorably compared. The adult sees two 
groups of pupils in relation to a median which divides the 
better half from the poorer half. Position in this latter 
class is odious to half the pupils thus unfavorably assigned, 
and does not stimulate them to better work. 

Space does not permit the presentation of other points 
of contrast between the point of view of the child and that 
of the adult. 

THE PROBLEM IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

Method of approach. Sympathetic and intelligent ap- 
preciation of the boy and girl ; the contrast between intense 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 13 

activity out of school and comparative inactivity within 
the school; the contrast between the viewpoints of child 
and adult, — these considerations suggest an approach to 
conception of the purpose of elementary education. It is 
this : Let us for the time forget that we have studied read- 
ing, writing, arithmetic, and others of the traditional sub- 
jects. Let us set aside the notion that we adults have 
attained to our present stage of development by virtue of 
our study of these traditional subjects. Let us not feel 
certain that our pupils can develop only by the course we 
have taken. 

Statement of the problem. Face to face with her group 
of pupils, each teacher may formulate her problem in this 
way : How can I help these hoys and girls to do better in all 
those wholesome activities in which they normally engage? 
This statement presents the point of view taken throughout 
this volume. The emphasis is upon helping rather than 
merely teaching ; consideration is directed to boys and girls 
as individuals, not as groups and averages; pupils are 
helped to do better than they have done before, rather 
than to compete with others ; the subjects for study are 
the normal experiences of children and people in whom 
they are concerned (limited, of course, to wholesome activi- 
ties) in place of the formal Three R's.^ 

AN EXPERIMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI 

A professional laboratory. The School of Education at 
the University of Missouri was organized in the fall of 1903 
under the deanship of Dr. A. Ross Hill, now president of 
the university. In 1904 a high school was organized, and 

^ This statement does not mean an effort to get away from the traditional 
curriculum; it does mean an effort to get close to the children in their 
activities out of school. The subject matter of the past is regarded only 
when it functions in the work of the pupils. 



14 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

in 1905 the elementary school was opened. The primary- 
purpose of the high school is the training of prospective 
secondary-school teachers. It is essentially a practice 
school. In only a secondary way can it serve as a labora- 
tory for professional study. The elementary school is not 
a practice school for the training of elementary-school 
teachers, but serves primarily as a professional laboratory. 
While the pupils serve as subjects, without which the pro- 
fessional study could not be conducted, they are not sacri- 
ficed for the sake of the experiment, as is indicated in the 
results presented in Chapter Nineteen. 

Initial steps. The school opened in 1905, enrolling pupils 
in the first three grades. The director of the school had 
not then formulated his problem, but his previous experience 
in public-school work had opened up the content of the cur- 
riculum as the important field for study in elementary 
education. 

The problem of the curriculum. For the first two years 
rearrangement of the traditional subjects was studied. This 
was unsatisfactory. It was not suflBciently constructive. 
In the fall of 1907 a tentative outline of a course for eight 
grades had been formulated as a basis for more constructive 
study. The content of this course — or, more appropriately, 
series of studies — was taken directly from the out-of-school 
interests and activities of children, but at first was without 
any organization. Before the close of the year the studies 
had been arranged for convenience in four groups, as now 
outlined in Chapter Seventeen. While this four-group 
arrangement has been maintained since that time, the sub- 
divisions have been very flexible and have not been allowed 
to crystallize in a fixed organization. 

The curriculum has been the central problem for pro- 
fessional study. All problems of school management and 
methods have been regarded as strictly subordinate and 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 15 

have therefore been given only incidental attention. This 
study of management and method is the more effective as 
it is made subservient to the larger problem of the curric- 
ulum; management and method are means of accomplish- 
ing the work outlined in the curriculum. 

Admimstration and supervision. The immediate direc- 
tion of this school has, from its beginning, been the work 
of the professor of school supervision in the School of Edu- 
cation, He has been allowed large liberty in governing the 
policy of the school. His advisers have been chiefly the 
teachers in this school and those in public schools who have 
cooperated with him or who have been students at the uni- 
versity. Hundreds of visiting teachers and many parents 
have made suggestions. 

Supervision of the school has been, first, in preparation of 
outlines such as those given in Chapter Seventeen. Teachers 
are expected to study these outlines, not to follow them. 
Each teacher is allowed great freedom in her own schedule, 
management, and method. The curriculum and the policy 
of the school encourage this. Supervision is given by fre- 
quent conferences with individual teachers, rather than 
through regular teachers' meetings. 

The teachers. The school of about one hundred pupils 
is taught by four teachers devoting full time, and usually 
a fifth teacher, a graduate student with previous experience 
as teacher, who devotes one-half time to the school. No 
specific qualifications are required of these teachers. Most 
of them have had experience in public schools. Some have 
had professional training ; some have had none at all. The 
endeavor has been to appoint no one who was not open to 
come into full sympathy with the principles and policies 
of the school. One serious interruption of the work has 
been the frequent change of teachers. Low salaries, mar- 
riage, and inability to advance the professional study have 



16 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

occasioned these changes to a greater degree than is current 
in public schools. 

The pupils and organization. The pupils come largely 
from the district in which the school is situated. Some 
come from other sections of the little city of Columbia, 
and a few come from near-by rural districts. No selection 
is evident save as the small annual tuition fee of ten dollars 
prevents some from attending. The school admits children 
six years of age into the first grade. ^ Seven grades are pro- 
vided, and work is being prepared for the eighth grade. The 
school is organized into grades of the traditional type. How- 
ever, these grades are really groups of children who are ad- 
vanced from grade to grade on the basis of a year's work 
rather than the completion of the work assigned to a given 
grade.2 In the main, each of four teachers has two con- 
secutive grades. The two grades form one large group and 
work together as one, so far as possible. There is no de- 
partmental work as organized in many schools. 

Building and furnishings. The five- thousand-dollar frame 
building is unique in its construction. The building is 50 feet 
long and 50 feet wide, two stories high, and has a basement. 
One half of the first floor is called the Fountain Room. An 
aquarium 14 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, with a 
fountain at the south end of the room, gives it the name. 
This aquarium is the center for studies in nature and 
becomes a pleasing bit of schoolroom decoration. Around 
the walls of the Fountain Room are exhibit cases, where the 
work of all the pupils is exhibited. This exhibit is continual 
and not for special occasions. As new projects are completed 

^ Until September, 1918, the school provided no kindergarten because 
of lack of schoolroom space, of funds for maintenance, and of time for study 
of this preelementary stage of schooling. Since September, 1918, the sixth 
and seventh grades have been organized with the ninth grade into a junior 
high school. 

* See plan for promotion presented in Chapter Eleven. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 17 

they take the place of the old. This room serves as an 
auditorium. There are no seats. None are needed, except 
for visitors. When there is to be an assembly the pupils 
come from their rooms, each bringing his chair. At the 
close of these frequent, but not daily, assemblies, the pupils 
take their chairs with them and the floor is again free for 
folk dancing and games. This Fountain Room is the social 
center of the school and is the most serviceable room in the 
building. 

On the second floor at the top of the open stairway is the 
library, 25 feet by 35 feet in area. Here the upper-grade 
pupils do most of their work. 

There are four classrooms or workrooms, one on the first 
floor and three on the second. These rooms are supplied 
with chairs and tables easily moved about by pupils, instead 
of the formal school desks screwed to the floor. 

Equipment. Except for the library, the meager equip- 
ment is a surprise to the many visitors. The library 
contains about twenty-five hundred volumes, besides 
about one hundred boxes of clippings and pictures. 
These books, with scarcely a duplicate, are a substitute for 
texts. 

A museum of illustrative material collected from various 
industrial establishments and other sources contributes to 
the work done. Boys in bench work and girls in domestic 
science do their work in the high-school building. The 
Elementary School is not provided with any shop or science 
apparatus. With an excellent library and full liberty for 
excursions and field work, school work is not seriously handi- 
capped because of meager equipment. 

Leading features. 1. The school does not study reading, 
writing, arithmetic, and others of the traditional subjects. 
Subjects for study are taken directly from life outside of 
school. 



18 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

2. The school does not use textbooks, but has an extensive 
hbrary to supplement studies made on excursions and field 
trips. 

3. The school has no recitations for testing students on 
assignments previously made. Conferences are held ir- 
regularly, though usually daily, in which pupils pool their 
findings made in the library or upon special observation. 
These conferences seldom drag, inasmuch as in the study 
of timely topics pupils have much to report. 

4. No assignments are made as lessons to be prepared. 
Assignments are replaced by developing, in these conferences, 
new problems or new material on old problems. Oppor- 
tunities are pointed out, rather than tasks assigned. The 
former is more conducive to industrious application than the 
latter. 

5. No final examinations or irregular tests are used to 
discover what the pupil has done or to spur him on to further 
accomplishment. Daily work is a sufficient test, and co- 
operative study of teacher and pupil is more effective than 
any artificial stimulus. 

Supplementary Readings 

Aldrich, T. B. Story of a Bad Boy. 

Bacon, Josephine D. The Memoirs of a Baby. 

The Madness of Philip. 

Barrie, J. M. Sentimental Tommy. 
Bell, J. J. Wee Macgreegor. 
Connor, Ralph. Glengarry School Days. 
Eggleston, Edward. Hoosier School Boy. 

Hoosier School Master. 

Gilder, Jeannette. Autobiography of a Tomboy. 

GiLSON, R. R. The Morning Glow. 

Graham, Kenneth. The Golden Age. 

GuNCKEL, J. E. Boyville. 

Harker, Lizzie Allen. Concerning Paul and Fiametta. 

HowELLS, W. D. A Boy's Town. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOOL 19 

Hughes, Thomas. Tom Brown at Rugby. 

Tom Brown's School Days. 

Johnson, O. M. Tennessee Shad. 
Jordan, Kate. May Iverson — Her Book. 
Kelly, Myra. Little Citizens. 
Kipling, Rudyard. Captains Courageous. 

Stalky and Company. 

Laughlin, Elmer. Johnnie. 

McClung, Nellie L. Sowing Seeds in Danny. 
MacDonald, George. Sir Gihhie. 
Martin, George M. Emmy Lou. 

Emmy Lou's Road to Grace. 

Phillips, W. S. Just About a Boy. 
Pryce, Richard. David Penstephen. 
Quick, Herbert. The Brown Mouse. 
Richards, T. E. When I Was Your Age. 
Shute, Henry A. A Real Diary of a Real Boy. 
Smith, W. H. Evolution of Dodd. 

Stuart, Ruth McEnery. Sonny. 
Tarkington, Booth. Penrod. 

Penrod and Sam. 

Seventeen. 

Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn. 

Tom Sawyer. 

Venable, W. H. Tom Tad. 

Warner, Charles Dudley. Being a Boy. 

White, S. E. Adventures of Bobby Orde. 

White, William Allen. Court of Boyville. 

WiGGiN, EIate Douglas. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, 

Wray, Angelina. Jean Mitchell's School. 

Zollinger, G. Widow O'Callaghan's Boys. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Two 

Some justification is given for the continuance of the traditional 
curriculum. 

The content of this curriculum has been justified rather than 
controlled. 

Religious or secular justification has proved inadequate. 

Three theories are prominent. 
The Culture Epoch theory is prominent. 

This theory asserts that the development of the individual 
corresponds approximately with the development of the race. 

Here is the source of the principle of doubtful educational ap- 
plication "from the simple to the complex." 

The theory may be criticized as a worship of the past rather 
than a consideration of the child's present good. 

The theory of race recapitulation suggests one sound principle ; 
the sense of need is the best occasion for study. 
The theory of formal discipline wields great influence. 

The theory is essentially this : improvement of ability in one 
subject means improvement of ability in other subjects. 

Formal discipline is used as the argument of last resort in sup- 
port of the traditional subjects. 

The real issue is the transfer of schoolroom abilities into social 
values. 
Correlation of school subjects supports the traditional curriculum. 

The term means only an interrelation between school subjects. 

The purposes of correlation are located in economy in teaching 
and interest of pupils. 

In the customary use of correlation lies a serious abuse. 

Natural correlation is found in the study of the problems of 
community life. 



90 



CHAPTER TWO 

Justification for the Traditional Curriculum 

BASIS FOR JUSTIFICATION 

Justification rather than control. The traditional cur- 
riculum consists of reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, 
geography, and other such subjects usually found in ele- 
mentary schools. It is needless at this point to be at all 
definite in indicating the scope and character of this tradi- 
tional curriculum and thus distinguish it from any new or 
modern one. There can be no distinct line of demarcation 
between the two. There are elements that overlap, though 
any particular curriculum may be characteristically tradi- 
tional or conspicuously modern. 

The traditional curriculum will be readily accepted as 
one of slow development. Some new subjects have gained 
a place in this curriculum, have had an influence upon other 
subjects, and then have discontinued as such. But in the 
main the Three R's and a few closely associated subjects 
have dominated, though in character they have slowly 
undergone various modifications. These changes in the 
curriculum have followed, somewhat tardily, changes in 
society and in industry. Thus the traditional curriculum 
is a growth, not a construction; a product of social and 
industrial activities rather than an instrument in the im- 
provement of such activities. We are, therefore, unable 
to look for ideas, principles, or policies that control in the 
selection and organization of this curriculum; but, on the 
other hand, we may look for certain principles that are 
assumed as the justification for the continued use of this 
curriculum. Such principles may be given as an answer 
to the question : Why has the traditional curriculum con- 
tinued so long in use? 

21 



22 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Religious and secular bases. ^ Prior to the nineteenth 
century, elementary education was largely on a religious 
basis. The hornbook and the New England primer were 
representative books used in schools of earlier times. Their 
contents were religious in character in accordance with the 
ideals of the times. But secular interests were developing, 
and in the nineteenth century became quite pronounced. 
In recent years elementary education has shown the effects 
of industrial and vocational training given in higher schools. 
The secular has become strictly dominant. 

Three theories. Yet it must be recognized that there was 
much in the reading, writing, and arithmetic of earlier years 
that was not strictly religious in nature, and that in the 
geography, history, and language of more recent years there 
is much that is not of the more practical sort in accordance 
with modern tendencies. We may, therefore, look for some 
justification for holding to the traditional school curriculum 
on other than the religious and the secular or practical bases. 
This justification is found in three educational theories that 
have been so generally accepted as valid that no serious 
question has been raised as to the ineffectiveness of the 
traditional curriculum and the possibility of effecting a 
marked improvement by a rather radical departure from 
custom. These three theories are : 

1. The culture-epoch theory. 

2. The theory of formal discipline. 

3. The theory of correlation. 

An attempt is made in this chapter not to discuss these 
three theories at all extensively, but rather to point out 
briefly the influence which they have had on the traditional 
curriculum and to suggest how inapplicable they are in a 
modern curriculum taken directly from contemporary life 
as proposed in later chapters of this volume. 

^ See Parker, S. C, The History oj Modern Elementary Education. 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 23 

THE CULTURE-EPOCH THEORY 

The theory. Various observations of the development 
of animal organisms have led some students to the belief 
that the individuat in its own development passes through 
the various stages through which the race has passed in 
reaching the stage represented by the individual. Man is 
no exception to this general rule, and in his individual de- 
velopment he recapitulates the stages through which the 
human race has passed in its development from primitive 
life to present civilization. This merely means that the 
dominant interests of the child at different stages in his 
own development are the same as those that actuated the 
human race at corresponding stages. 

Educational application. Various stages have been as- 
signed to the development of civilization by those who 
write upon the history of humanity. Three stages have '] 
been the more common when applied to child development : \ 
"... first, the predominance of emotional imagination, — ' 
the mythical, animistic phase of mind ; second, the develop- 
ment of a matter-of-fact interest expressed in a tendency 
to observe, to collect, to make utilitarian constructions; 
third, the emerging of conscious reflection, characterized 
by interest in abstraction and generalization." ^ Belief in 
such stages on the part of superintendents and teachers is 
largely responsible for reading courses that begin with the 
myth and fairy tale in the lower grades and close with 
addresses of statesmen in the upper grades. Here is also 
the explanation for the history course that begins in the 
lower grades with stories of primitive man and reaches 
recent American history only in the upper grades. A 
second cycle of this history is seen in the four years' high 
school course : 1, ancient ; 2, medieval and modern ; 3, Eng- 

^ Dewey, J., article in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 



24 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

lish ; 4, American. Much language work has been arranged 
on this principle. Representative of such are the directions 
for first- and second-grade language for the schools of New- 
York State : " Oral reproduction of myths, hero tales, fairy 
and folk stories, stories of primitive life, and stories of the 
life of today." ^ 

Representative of primitive life as the center of various 
school studies is the course of study for Horace Mann School 
for 1906,2 ^ comparison of the curriculum of this school 
in more recent years shows much less emphasis given to the 
life of primitive people as a basis for the study of present 
life. Belief in the application of this culture-epoch program 
is largely responsible for the historical approach in the study 
of present-day problems, for the principle of procedure from 
the simple to the complex. It is assumed that children 
would have more interest in the sickle as an instrument in 
the harvest field than in the modern harvester; and that 
the effective course for instruction would be from the simple 
sickle to the complex harvester. 

A word of criticism. This culture-epoch theory and its 
application to school work appeals to many by reason of 
its indefiniteness and its seemingly scholarly basis. The 
theory must be credited as an earnest attempt to get at the 
true development of the child to serve as a basis for the 
selection of courses of study. But against this credit must 
be placed the serious neglect of the child's immediate present, 
his physical and social environment so wholly foreign to 
that of his race in earlier stages. Not history and anthro- 
pology so much as contemporary psychology and sociology 
are adequate guides in a child's development. Indeed, the 
culture-epoch order in the selection and arrangement of 
subject matter is in conflict with the principle of apper- 

^ Syllabus for Elementary Schools, New York, 1910. 

' See Teachers College Record for January, 1906, page 114. 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 25 

ception. The child experiences first his own immediate 
present. He can become acquainted with the remote past, 
which he cannot experience, only through his knowledge 
of the present, which he is experiencing. 

The culture-epoch theory is a worship of the past. The 
biological correspondence of individual development and 
racial development must not be overtaxed. " It may be 
that our preconceived ideas of the stages through which 
the organism passed in progressing from the amceba to 
man have led us to imagine that we see these stages mir- 
rored in the developing individual." ^ And it is probable 
that the adult viewpoint, that of seeing school work logically 
and chronologically arranged, is responsible for the assumed 
educational significance of this theory. No attempt can be 
made here to present facts or opinions sufficient to justify 
or condemn this theory. But to reject the theory does 
mean : 1, to reject history stories as central or even promi- 
nent in elementary school work; 2, to reject a historical 
approach to the study of present activities ; 3, to reject the 
policy of presenting primitive life as more simple and more 
interesting to children than present life. 

A suggestion: Need should control. The rejection of 
the culture-epoch theory as a leading principle in the selec- 
tion and organization of the content of school subjects need 
not carry with it the rejection of every element in that 
theory. One principle included in the theory is this : The 
human race in primitive times lived a simple life ; but even 
slight changes in the environment called for some struggle 
to readjust to meet the new situations. Necessity has 
always been the mother of invention. In the face of a 
real need our race studied to secure better adjustment. 
This principle is probably included in most progressive 
educational thought today. Consider arithmetic, first, as 
^ Yerkes, R. M., IMrodtiction to Psychology, page 231. 



26 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

it has developed ; then, as it is now treated. " Arithmetic 
started when it ceased to be a question of this group of 
savage warriors being more than that, and began to be 
recognized that this group was three and that two ; when 
it was no longer a matter of a stone ax being worth a handful 
of arrow heads, but one of an exchange of one ax for eight 
arrows." ^ Simple operations were followed by a crude 
system of notation. In all such cases it was a matter of 
meeting a real need. " There is luck in odd numbers," 
indicates one use Pythagoras and his followers made of 
numbers. The Hanseatic League in the fourteenth cen- 
tury found a real need for schools of arithmetic. Not until 
the time of Pestalozzi was it found that arithmetic could be 
taught to little people in the common schools.^ Pestalozzi, 
so efficient in teaching, brought to younger minds arithmetic 
which was not at all of use to them, as it had been to the 
Hanseatic League. Henceforth children were taught arith- 
metic as an exercise needed for general training rather than for 
immediately practical needs. The leading value usually as- 
signed to arithmetic is its utility in life. But careful re- 
flection upon our relations with people and with things 
shows us how extensively quantity enters our experience, 
even the experience of little children; but the arithmetic 
taught is largely that for use by adults, and answers but 
little to needs felt by the child. 

If now we apply religiously the culture-epoch theory in 
teaching number concepts and quantitative operations we 
would, first, teach pupils numbers as need arises ; and, 
second, use all the crudities of counting, of notation, and 
of numeration of early years. The former would be most 
commendable ; the latter, ridiculous. But to teach as need 
arises is a principle that comes to us more positively from 

^ Smith D. E., The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics, page 45. 
2 Ibid., page 63. 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 27 

our direct study of the pupil in our efforts to help him in 
what he is now doing than from the culture-epoch theory. 
Ability to analyze conditions and thus feel the need of re- 
adjustment depends upon one's experience. There is much 
common sense, as well as scientific truth, in the principle of 
apperception, but this psychological principle is far from 
insisting upon a historical approach in the study of con- 
temporary problems. 

The culture-epoch theory has one sound element: The 
sense of need is the best occasion for study ; but this prin- 
ciple is not patented by the culture-epoch theory. It comes 
more directly from our recognition of conditions in present 
life. 

FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

The theory. Training in one line of mental activity im- 
proves abilities in another line of mental activity. This is, 
in brief, the theory which, to a very great extent, has been 
assumed to be one justification for the continued use of the 
traditional curriculum. The pupil who develops accuracy 
and rapidity in fourth-grade work in fractions improves his 
ability to be accurate in reciting the dates of the ten de- 
cisive battles of the world and improves also his ability to 
be rapid in parsing nouns and bounding states. Improve- 
ment of ability in one school subject means improvement 
of ability in another school subject. This theory of formal 
discipline is ordinarily limited to mental activities as carried 
on in school. To carry the theory over into real life seems 
not yet attempted. Training in mental activity needed 
for the robbing of banks is not usually regarded as that 
which would improve the mental activity needed in effec- 
tive teaching of a Sunday-school class. The theory of 
formal discipline is practically limited to the school arts, 
whatever be the bounds of the principle. 



28 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Formal discipline in the curriculum. Formal discipline 
in school subjects becomes prominent whenever the content 
of such subjects becomes of little or no functional value due 
to changes in the lives of people to which these subjects 
once contributed real service. For example, just so soon 
as arithmetic ceases to function directly in the affairs of 
people, as it did in the promotion of business under the 
direction of the Hanseatic League, just so soon is formal 
discipline assigned as the chief value of arithmetic. That 
is, even if the study of arithmetic does not contribute directly 
to the service of the boy on the farm or of the girl stenog- 
rapher, formal discipline justifies the continuance of arith- 
metic on the ground that the boy is developing accuracy, 
which is seen first in its effect upon the boy's work in other 
school subjects and probably later in planting corn and 
breeding stock, and that the prospective stenographer be- 
comes more rapid in spelling and thus later more efficient 
in her office. To what extent does the arithmetic of the 
school positively contribute to improvement in the prac- 
tical affairs of people in life outside of school.? No scien- 
tifically accurate answer is yet given, but there is an in- 
creasing amount of comment to the effect that school 
arithmetic functions far less than it has been credited with 
doing. And yet in the past fifteen years there has been 
scarcely any diminution of the time given to arithmetic 
compared with other school subjects. In 1904, 17.3 per 
cent of school time was given to arithmetic; in 1910, 15.2 
per cent ; and in 1915, 15.9.^ 

Most of the reading in school, in so far as it is class and 
oral reading, and much of it is such, is really continued on 
the ground of its formal disciplinary value rather than its 
contribution to the welfare of the pupil, as the leisure read- 
ing of the adult contributes to his welfare. The reading 
1 See Table VII, page 211. 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 29 

lesson as assigned, studied, and recited upon by oral reading 
in class and supplemented by discussion, cannot be supported 
as an activity definitely intended to meet a real need. It is 
a school exercise without a vital purpose. Formal discipline 
is its assumed justification. 

Spelling lessons are essentially exercises in which formal 
discipline is provided. Words are selected from reading 
books, the enjoyment of which does not depend upon spell- 
ing at all. Lists of words misspelled by the pupils in com- 
position are studied ; these errors are noted and corrections 
are made without any regard to the frequency of occurrence 
of such words in the compositions of these pupils. The 
spelling of words as one of the school subjects is an exercise 
for its general effects rather than intended to meet some 
specific need. 

Language exercises, grammatical analysis, composition 
work, and even writing by the Spencerian, Palmer, Vertical, 
or some other system, all are retained among the school 
arts much more as general discipline than because they 
function in meeting real needs either in the immediate 
present or the remote future. 

Geography is a study of the world as the home of man. 
The texts used include the farthermost islands of the sea 
and all the districts near home. The geography must cover 
the ground, must survey the whole world, must be encyclo- 
pedic that it may meet the needs of schools in all localities. 
This geographical account must be more than a place, or 
space, survey : it includes a description of the activities of 
peoples. These descriptions are the more valued as they 
are the more inclusive. But the size of the book, for school 
purposes, is limited, and therefore the descriptions of im- 
portant as well as unimportant activities are limited to 
paragraphs or even single statements. As geography this 
inclusive survey is unavoidable. In the use of these geog- 



30 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

raphy texts appears the formal-discipline theory. Largely 
on this basis do the school authorities guide the pupils 
through this logically organized mass of material. Most 
courses of study include this whole range of geography, 
evidently without reference to genuine needs. 

Attempt to discard any one of the subjects in the tradi- 
tional curriculum on the, ground that it does not meet real 
needs, and objection is promptly made on the basis that the 
subject has disciplinary value. 

The real issue. The correlations studied in this problem 
of formal discipline have been largely limited to schoolroom 
subjects and certain specified mental activities commonly 
associated with them, such as memory, attention, and 
visual apprehension. The effect of this sort of scientific 
study is to strengthen the impression among school teachers, 
school administrators, and school communities that these 
formal school subjects contain the subject matter worth 
studying and that through them faculties of memory, atten- 
tion, reason, etc., are to be developed. The theory of the 
modern curriculum presented in this volume leads to two 
propositions as to the real issue involved in this question 
of formal discipline. 

1. So long as the traditional Three-R subjects constitute 
the curriculum of our schools, the question of formal dis- 
cipline should be this : To what extent does improvement 
of abilities in these school subjects carry over into various 
activities in real life.'' Suppose it be proved to the satis- 
faction of all that improvement in ability of pupils to multiply 
complex fractions is transferred to the language exercise of 
selecting nouns in a page of literature. We are not yet as- 
sured that an acceptable method of training stenographers, 
housekeepers, and messenger boys is to give them training 
in the multiplying of complex fractions. We have yet to 
study the correlation of either one of these with abilities 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 31 

called for in stenographers, housekeepers, or messenger boys. 
Indeed, general training and formal discipline are not ulti- 
mately satisfying. We are concerned with abilities function- 
ing in particular cases. General ability never functions. 
In real life we are not concerned with general notions, but 
with particular reactions.^ If, therefore, the complex frac- 
tion as one chapter in our school arithmetic continues to be 
subject matter for school work, we should feel under obliga- 
tion to inquire as to the extent to which improvement of 
ability in mental activity here involved carries over into an 
improvement of ability in mental activity functioning in 
stenographic work. But the contention in this volume is 
that the traditional formal school subjects must soon give 
way to studies of life activities. In such case the question 
of formal discipline changes. 

2. When our school studies become essentially studies of 
particular activities of life outside of school, the question 
of formal discipline gives way to the question of the extent 
to which the school activities can be identified in kind with 
the activities in which pupils will be engaged later, and 
the question of identity of attitude and method of response. 
This proposition may seem to beg the whole question. On 
the other hand, it merely limits quite definitely the problem 
and expresses it in terms of life acts rather than in terms of 
school arts. The first part is a quantitative problem — 
counting the frequency of occurrence of a given activity 
in school and in real life outside of school ; the second part 
is at first a qualitative problem — defining the attitude and 
method through which individuals show efficiency in school 
work and in their activities out of school.^ Sixth-grade 
pupils are studying the large problem of transportation. 

^ Compare the position taken by McMurry on the general notion as the 
goal of instruction, in his Method of the Recitation. 

2 For a brief discussion of these elements of efficiency, see pages 163-166. 



32 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The real issue now is: How does improvement in ability 
in studying this problem carry over for the girl who later 
enters stenographic work in an oflSce? 

Formal discipline in traditional school studies has received 
attention at the sacrifice of social values of an improved 
curriculum. Reject formal discipline as a principle of 
control in new constructions or of justification for the old 
curriculum, and each subject in the course of study can 
retain its place only to the extent that it fulfills specific 
purposes. The question of relative social values must be 
ever present. Indeed, new subject matter as studies in 
terms of real life must be welcomed to replace the old if 
its social value proves superior. 

CORRELATION OF SCHOOL SUBJECTS 

The term. Correlation is essentially an interrelation 
between two or more school subjects. This co-relation 
admits of an organization of school work about one subject 
as central, then about another as central. It also allows 
several studies to be related as coordinate. Correlation is 
also applied to the interrelating of divisions of a subject, 
and also to the relation of school work to life activities out 
of school. 

Purposes of correlation. Correlation is primarily a means 
of economy. In early schools there was no problem of 
correlation ; school subjects were so limited that pressure 
needed no relief through a scheme of correlation. In more 
recent years the curriculum of the school has become so 
crowded with different subjects that an effort has been 
made to so relate the subjects that better economy of time 
and effort can be effected. More frequently, however, two 
other reasons are assigned, viz., interest of pupils in one 
subject is increased if a second subject is related at the 
time of instruction; and the difficulties of one subject are 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 33 

often simplified if a second subject is seen to be related. 
But greater interest and more ready comprehension are 
essentially means to better economy of time and effort by 
both teacher and pupil. Without correlation special methods 
and unique devices might be used to interest the pupil and to 
facilitate comprehension. 

Use and abuse of correlation. Various are the schemes 
of correlation. The curriculum of Horace Mann School in 
1906 ^ shows the relation of the various activities of the 
first grade to the study of primitive life. Here primitive 
life was central. Closely related to this were the other 
studies : manual training, literature reading, nature study, 
art, arithmetic, music, and physical education. 

Frequently in the intermediate or upper grades geography 
is taken as central. Other studies for a time are controlled 
by the course in geography. For example, twenty lessons 
are given to the study of Italy. Language, writing, drawing, 
reading, and arithmetic are correlated. The twelfth lesson 
is on a part of Venice. The geography lesson is an examina- 
tion of the Rialto Bridge, St. Mark's Cathedral, the Cam- 
panile, and the Clock Tower. The reading class reads The 
Merchant of Venice. The language work is a composition 
on the character of Portia. The subject for drawing is 
any one of the four buildings. In arithmetic the pupils 
calculate the comparative heights of these four structures 
studied. 

In this use of correlation lies its abuse. Arbitrarily re- 
lating two or more subjects soon reduces the relation to 
mere form. Calculating the relative heights of the build- 
ings in the correlation scheme referred to above belongs to 
the study of those buildings, if worth while at all, without 
reference to the name of the subject in which the study is 
being made. The formal subjects of the traditional school 
1 Teachers College Record. Vol. VII, No. 1. 



34 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

admit of this arbitrary correlation. In most of the geog- 
raphy, arithmetical work is possible. Language study may 
be connected with any reading lesson. Drawing may be 
related to history. Any two of the subjects may at any 
time be more or less related. Once allow this artificial 
relating of school subjects to get a start and correlation 
becomes a fetish. 

But artificiality in its use is not the only abuse. If corre- 
lation is used as a means of enhancing interest and facilitating 
comprehension there appears at once a serious question as to 
the appropriateness of the subject matter. This subject 
matter is evidently not appreciated by the pupil as meeting 
his real needs and is experienced as something beyond his 
immediate ability to comprehend. 

This whole problem of correlation arises by reason of the 
formality and the artificiality of the school course of study. 
In correlation appears an attempt to counteract the serious 
errors already made in the inappropriate subject matter 
selected and arranged as the adult reviews his experience, 
instead of that subject matter which the child is now facing 
in his struggles for adequate adjustment. 

Natural correlation. The best correlation scheme results 
when teachers make no conscious attempt to correlate, 
but when they push the study of a really vital problem to 
fully meet their needs. Correlation will be natural when 
the problem studied belongs to normal life. 

We may first note the correlation of that subject matter 
which now constitutes our school subjects. In the study 
of the problem of transportation the pupil cannot escape a 
considerable study of what is now included in geography. 
Transportation has to do with places. A pupil must read 
extensively if he studies at all thoroughly this problem of 
transportation. Arithmetical work cannot be escaped, for 
quantitative problems are involved. Drawing and composi- 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 35 

tion, as well as oral expression, are helpful instruments in 
this study. Bits of historical development of means of 
transportation may contribute some interest. All this corre- 
lation would be arbitrary and would soon become an empty 
form were transportation used as the opportunity for re- 
lating geographical, historical, and arithmetical subject 
matter. Center attention upon the large problem of trans- 
portation, and correlation will take care of itself. 

A second type of correlation may be noted, though it as 
quickly disappears. If the school curriculum were to con- 
sist essentially of problems of contemporary life one might 
seek a scheme of correlation of these various problems or a 
relation of them as school subjects to life activities out of 
school. But no sooner does one enter upon the study of a 
life problem than the whole notion of correlation vanishes. 
The problem of transportation calls for some consideration 
of mining as a source of production ; of steel and iron works 
as a means in manufacturing; of farming as one place for 
consumption of articles prepared. The problem of trans- 
portation is not adequately studied without taking note of 
the conditions that call for transportation. This correlation 
should not be planned in advance as such. It is important 
only to study transportation so far as the interests, needs, 
and abilities of the pupils warrant. 

CULTURE-EPOCH THEORY 

Supplementary Readings 

Baglet, W. C. The Educative Process, pages 184-202. 

Bolton, F. E. Principles of Education, pages 63-118. 

Dewey, J. Article in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 

Henderson, E. N. A Text-book in the Principles of Education, pages 163- 

189. 
Shuleb, E. W. "The Passing of the Recapitulation Theory." Educational 

Review, Vol. 44, pages 191-196. 



36 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

General References 

Baldwin, J. W. Mental Development, pages 20-35. 

Chamberlain, A. F. The Child: A Study in the Evolution of Man, pages 

29-106. 
Davidson, P. E. The Recapitulation Theory and Human Infancy. 
De Garmo, C. Herbart and the Herbartians, pages 107-129. 
Dewey, McMubby, and others. Articles in First and Second Herhartian 

Year Book. 
Dopp, Katherine. Tree Dwellers, Preface and Contents. 
Hall, G. S. Adolescence, Vol. II. 

KiRKPATBiCK, E. A. Fundamentals of Child Study, pages 65-286. 
Smith, D. E. The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics, pages 42-70. 
Thobndike, E. L. Educational Psychology, Vol. I., Chapter XVI. 
Vincent, G. E. The Social Mind and Education. 

FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

Supplementary Readings 

Baqlet, W. C. The Educative Process, pages 203-224. 

Bolton, F. E. Principles of Education, pages 736^781. 

Dewey, J. Democracy and Education, pages 63-80. 

Heck, W. H. Mental Discipline and Educational Values. 

Henderson, E. N. A Text-book in the Principles of Education, pages 283- 

317. Article in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 
Jodd, C. H. Psychology of High School Subjects, pages 392-435. 

General References 
Bennet, C. J. Formal Discipline. 
Briggs, T. H. "Formal English Grammar as a Discipline." SeeTeachera 

College Record, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 1913. 
RuGG, H. O. The Experimental Determination of Mental Discipline in 

School Studies. 
Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology, Vol. II, Chapter XII. 

CORRELATION 
Supplementary Readings 
Bagley, W. C. The Educative Process, pages 203-217. 
Course of Study for Elementary Schools. New York State Educational De- 
partment, 1910. 



JUSTIFICATION FOR TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 3T 

Db Garmo, C. Herbart and the Herbartians, pages 215-227. 
Hbndebson, E. N. Articles on "Correlation" and "Concentration" in 

Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 
"Horace Mann School — Course of Study." Teachers College Record, Vol. 

VII. No. 1. 
Jtjdd, C. H. " Types of Correlation." Elementary School Journal, Vol. 12, 

pages 34-39. 
McMuRRY, C. A. General Method, pages 162-213. 
Rein, W. Outlines of Pedagogics, pages 65-92. 
Report of the Committee of Fifteen. 
Report of the Committee of Ten. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Three 

Withdrawal from school may be interpreted as : 
Unrelated to attendance. 
An index of suflBciency in the pupil. 
An index of efficiency in the school. 
The situation as to withdrawals has attracted attention. 

General observation convinces one of an unfavorable situation. 
The reports of the Commissioner of Education show how limited 

is the schooling of many. 
Scientific studies have led to rather definite conclusions : 
Over age and withdrawal have high correlation. 
Large numbers of pupils complete only about one half of 

the school course. 
The retarded pupil leaves school. 
Withdrawal is related to low class standing. 
Causes assigned for withdrawal need further study. 
Withdrawal measures school efficiency. 
The need of work, desire for activity, indifference, etc., as the 

usual causes given, are superficial. 
The inefficiency of the curriculum is probably the cause for 
withdrawal. 
The consequences of this withdrawal are serious. 
The curriculum is judged wanting. 

Withdrawal by the pupU becomes virtually elimination by the 
school. 

A reconstruction of the curriculum is needed. 



88 



CHAPTER THREE 

The Traditional Curriculum 
Criticism by Pupils 

INTERPRETATION OF WITHDRAWAL FROM SCHOOL 

Relation to attendance. Withdrawal from school is con- 
sidered here as a totally different problem from that of 
attendance, which is a matter of minor importance in school 
management. Withdrawal, however, is a definite expression 
of the attitude of both children and adults, and is of a perma- 
nent character. Nevertheless, regular attendance in the 
public school has received, perhaps, more attention than the 
real work for which attendance is required. It can be 
watched and recorded easily ; therefore it is used as a basis 
for estimating the general standing of schools, and it enters 
into standards on the basis of which pupils are promoted. 
Withdrawal is a much more serious problem and is attended 
with more divergent consequences. 

Two possible interpretations of withdrawal are here 
suggested. 

Withdrawal an index of sufficiency. An illustration may 
be risked where it may not be needed. A deer comes out 
of the dense forest to the stream of water. He drinks his 
fill and then slowly turns and goes back into the forest. 
He drank until he had enough. There is, of course, the 
simple implication that the water was satisfying. The 
quantity varies with the need. 

Withdrawal from school may mean just this : an individ- 
ual pupil has received suflScient schooling to satisfy him. 
The amount of schooling will depend upon real or supposed 
needs. In this case, that which is sufficient must be judged 
according to a much broader standard than the mere caprice 

39 



40 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

of the individual. Who judges this? Society makes its 
demands. Social, industrial, and religious life have much 
influence on the degree to which an individual prepares 
himself. The community passes judgment. The individ- 
ual, sooner or later, is bound to recognize this. 

An important question at this point is : To what extent 
do we wish the rank and file of our young people to continue 
in school ? How much is really sufl&cient ? The famous law 
of 1647 in Massachusetts requiring towns of fifty householders 
to maintain a teacher went as far as conditions then war- 
ranted. Today our free elementary school with compulsory 
attendance laws makes a higher demand. The public high 
school and the free state university are further expressions 
of the people at large against withdrawal from school. All 
this is in general an assertion of the belief that success is 
dependent upon preparation through the school. Some 
studies have given evidence of a correlation between the 
amount of schooling and financial success.^ 

But even if more time in school means greater success in 
life, a question may be raised as to the advisability of edu- 
cating all people to the extent of the elementary school. 
Perhaps the school might well serve as a selective agency, 
not in discovering those pupils whose intellectual powers 
warrant continuance into more advanced schools, but in 
selecting those equal to becoming leaders in community 
life. Perhaps the school might sift out those who, under 
quite a different scheme of school occupation, would develop 
into especially efficient workmen. 

In any of these cases, or similar ones, withdrawal may be 
an index of sufficiency of that which is offered, whatever be 
the desire for other work not now included in the schools.. 

Witfadrawal an index of efficiency. The deer illustration 
may be used again. The deer soon finds the water dirty or 
1 Staples, O. B., Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 10, pages 261-269. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 41 

disturbed by an enemy near and he quickly withdraws. 
Something is not satisfying. And we may do no injustice 
to the school situation if we interpret the withdrawal of 
pupils as an indication that the work of the school does 
not meet their needs. Who determines these needs.'' The 
state says that children shall attend school about six years. 
Just what shall be done in those six years is not stipulated. 
Society, through custom, says : Master the Three R's so 
far as possible in the six or eight years in the grades; let 
those who would be leaders accomplish more. The with- 
drawal of the masses of pupils as soon as the law allows 
may indicate society's judgment that the amount then 
acquired is sufficient. And it may indicate that society is 
not satisfied with what is being done and decides that with- 
drawal is preferable to continuing at school. But the in- 
dividual, probably more than society, determines by his 
own interests the extent to which the traditional schooling 
is of value to him. His decision rests largely upon what 
he sees of immediate value to him. He fails to find present 
values in the usual school subjects and expresses his idea by 
withdrawing. 

Thus withdrawal may mean that pupils have had a suffi- 
ciency, assuming that the work of the school is satisfactory. 
On the other hand, it may mean that the work is not satis- 
factory and this feeling is expressed by withdrawal. 

THE SITUATION AS TO WITHDRAWALS 

Studies of withdrawals. Casual observation leads one to 
suspect that many children are out of school when they 
should be in school. The Annual Reports of the United 
States Commissioner of Education show that only 3.75 per 
cent of all students enrolled in 1893 were in schools above 
the eighth grade. In 1916 this percentage had increased to 
8.59. 



42 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Thorndike, Ayres, Strayer, Dearborn, and many others 
have presented statistical studies of the withdrawal of pupils. 

Some generalizations upon the basis of these studies. 
Only about one tenth of all those enrolled in public schools 
are in schools above the grade schools. That is, the masses 
of those in school are in the lower schools. Perhaps the 
real surprise here is the large number, relatively, that have 
advanced so far as the secondary schools. Whether this 
number is gratifying or not depends on the extent of ac- 
ceptance by individuals and community of the policy of 
retaining a large number in schools. 

State laws requiring attendance at school are such that 
a respectable attendance is maintained, though from the 
point of view of compliance with the law there is unques- 
tionably much evasion. Most school attendance laws re- 
quire attendance up to the age of 14, yet the actual number 
of pupils withdrawing before the age of 12 is surprisingly 
large. 

Child labor laws vary in the different states. These 
laws affect school attendance. In general they forbid the 
employment of children under 14 in factory or shop work. 
Evidently many evade the law. Further, the laws make 
certain restrictions upon employing children between 14 
and 16 years of age. Data indicate quite extensive with- 
drawals between the ages of 14 and 16, and there is evidence 
that many of these withdrawals are for the purpose of going 
to work. Labor organizations are much opposed to the 
employment of children before the age of 16, for economic 
reasons ; and child- welfare organizations are likewise opposed 
for humanitarian reasons. But in spite of such opposition, 
from one third to one half of the pupils of 14 and 15 years of 
age leave school. 

Whatever may be the value of the course of study taken 
by pupils in the elementary schools, statistics show that 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 43 

our pupils complete comparatively little of the work. One 
fifth of the children entering school complete only four 
grades. Then in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades they 
drop out so rapidly that only about one in three of those 
who began complete the course. Children may comply 
with the law requiring attendance at school. The law 
does not — it cannot — require the completion of certain 
grades of work. 

Approximately one third of pupils in school are behind 
their grades. Putting together the data on retardation, 
grade withdrawals, and age withdrawals, there is evidence 
that there is considerable relationship between retardation 
and withdrawals. 

There has been too little study of the relation between 
the quality of work and the amount of withdrawal to warrant 
any very positive conclusion. Brooks' ^ study indicates that 
there may not be much relation. If retardation is a mark 
of inferiority in mental ability, it seems probable that there 
is a high correlation. But we shall question again later if 
those retarded are really mentally inferior. 

CAUSES FOR WITHDRAWAL 

Withdrawal and school efficiency. At the opening of 
this chapter it was suggested that withdrawal might be 
viewed as an index of suflSciency to the pupil or as a measure 
of the efficiency of the school. Comparatively little evidence 
seems needed, however, to lead us to set aside the notion 
that those children who withdraw from school before they 
have completed five years of school work, or who are two 
or more years younger than is favored for entering various 
industries as employees, have had sufficient schooling. 

The study referred to on page 40 showing certain posi- 

^ Educational Review, Vol. 26, pages 362-393. 



44 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



live correlation between advancement in school and financial 
success, indicates that it is better to remain in school than to 
withdraw. 

Though such evidences of the need of more schooling may 
be complimentary to our present educational system, there 
is at least the possibility of finding that our elementary 
education should contribute much more than it does to 
success. The large number of withdrawals and the rest- 
lessness of pupils under a law that forbids withdrawing 
present a situation not so complimentary. An examina- 
tion of the causes of withdrawal will probably lead us to 
see the eflficiency of the school measured by this exodus of 
pupils from school into the vocational activities of adult life. 

Some studies in the causes of withdrawal. A brief 
resume of some of the studies of the causes of withdrawal 
is appropriate here. 

TABLE II 

Causes of Withdbawal Expeessbd in Percentages 



Causes 



Boys 



Grades 



High 
School 



Total 



Girls 



G^-J- sKi 



Total 



1. Ill health 

2. To work 

3. Desire for activity . . 

4. Indifference .... 

5. Home influence . . . 

6. Failure in work . . . 

7. Truancy 

8. Bad conduct .... 

9. To attend other schools 

10. Dislike for authority . 

11. Bad habits .... 

12. Society 



9 

51 

4 

9 



5 

37 
9 

12 
1 

11 
4 
2 
4 

11 
3 
1 



46 
5 

10 
6 
7 
4 
3 
3 
5 
2 
1 



36 
32 

11 
6 
7 
1 
1 
4 
1 

1 



17 


14 
1 

13 

1 
7 
4 

5 



37 
26 

12 
4 
9 
1 
1 
5 
3 

2 



^ Brooks, S. D., in Educational Review, Vol. 26, page 363. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 



45 



Ayres presents a study ^ of withdrawals from school in 
six cities, in which the causes are summarized as follows : 

TABLE II 

Causes of Withdrawal Expressed in Percentages 





Causes 


Pekcentaqes 






High School 


Elementary 


1 


Work 


34.5 
22.2 
15.3 
4.6 
5.1 
17.2 




20.8 


9 


Ill health 


16.6 


s 




51.4 


4. 
5. 
6. 


Private schools 

Lack of success 

Other reasons ........ 


3.8 

7.4 



Ayres further studies ^ certain fifth- and eighth-grade 
pupils in New York City, indicating that age is the con- 
trolling factor in elimination, 

TABLE III 

Age as a Cause of Withdrawal 



Age at Stabtinq 


Number 


DP Pupils 


Avbeaob Numbek 

OP Years to 

Complete 


Avekaqb Age at 
Completion 




Fifth 


Eighth 


Fifth 


Eighth 


Fifth 


Eighth 


Under 5 . . • . 


27 


12 


7.05 


9.62 


12.05 


14.62 


5to6 . 








248 


64 


6.08 


8.86 


11.58 


14.36 


6to7 . 








410 


113 


5.92 


8.61 


12.42 


15.11 


7to8 . 








173 


54 


5.75 


8.44 


13.25 


15.94 


8to9 . 








72 


19 


5.19 


8.18 


13.69 


16.68 


9 to 10 








32 


7 


4.85 


7.71 


14.35 


16.71 


10 to 11 








4 




3.50 




13.50 




11 to 12 








1 




3.50 




14.50 




Total 


967 


269 


5.86 


8.61 


12.51 


15.23 



^ Ayres, L. P., Laggards in Our Schools, pages 99-102 
* Ibid., pages 166, 168. 



46 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

In a study of Conditions under which children leave school 
to go to work ^ prepared by the United States Commissioner 
of Labor, the following summary of causes for children 
leaving school is presented : 

Feb Cbnt 

Necessity 30.0 

Earnings necessary to family support 

Help needed at home 

Self-support necessary 
Child's help desired, though not necessary ' 27.9 

In family support 

To buy property 

In home work 

To earn money for education of self or relative 
Child's dissatisfaction with school 26.6 

Tired of school 

Disliked school (general manner of life there) 

Disliked teacher 

Disliked study 

Could not learn 

Not promoted 

Too big for class 
Child's preference for work 9.8 

Work preferred to school 

Spending money wanted 

Association desired with friends who worked 
Other causes 5.7 

111 health 

To be kept off the street 

To learn a trade or business 

To avoid vaccination 

Removal of residence 

Mother's disapproval of coeducation 

"Too much play." Company pressure 

J. M. Greenwood ^ discussed retardation of pupils and 
noted the following causes for retardation among 711 pupils 
who took more than seven years to complete the seven-year 
course in the grade schools of Kansas City : 

1 Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United 
States. Commissioner of Labor, 1910, Vol. 7, page 464 

2 Edttcational Review, Vol. 37, pages 342-348. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 



47 



Pbr Cent 

Sickness 268 37.7 

Changing schools 193 27.1 

Reviewing school work 143 20.1 

Absence 40 5.6 

Having to work 12 1.7 

Lack of interest in studies .... 15 2.1 

Weak eyes 3 .4 

Defective speech 2 .3 

No reason assigned 35 4.9 

711 

The curriculum as the cause for withdrawal. The studies 
cited above are only a few of many similar ones made in 
an effort to understand the withdrawal of pupils. An 
effort is here made to classify these various causes as given 
and then view them all in the light of what may prove to 
be a more fundamental cause for the exodus of pupils. 



Gtjtside of School 


School Management 




Individual Pupil 


1. 


Removal 1. 


Tke Teacher - 


1. 


Physical 




1. Out of town 


1. Personality 




1. Over age 




2. Change of district 


2. Authority 




2. Defective 




3. Other kind of school 


3. Method of teaching 


3. Ill health 


2. 


Social Conditions 2. 


Regulations 


2. 


Intellectual 




1. Home indifference 


1. Restrictions 




1. Weak 




2. Society 


2. Classification 




2. Failure 




3. Community custom 


3. Promotions 




3. Indifference 




4. Need to work 


4. Routine of work 






3. 


Legal 3. 


Progress 


3. 


Character 




1. Compulsory age 


1. Irregular atten- 




1. Bad habits 




limit 


dance 
2. Retardation 




2. Evil conduct 

3. Trpancy 






3. Lack of differ- 


4. 


Interests 






entiation 




1. Desire for ac- 

tivity 

2. Desire for work 



These causes, given by pupils, teachers, parents, labor 
organizations, and educational investigators, are quite mis- 
cellaneous. It may not be possible or desirable to reduce 



48 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

them to one. But the attempt is here made for the purpose 
of more seriously questioning the situation as to the tradi- 
tional curriculum. 

School teachers and administrators rather easily avoid 
the responsibility for withdrawal by attributing it to com- 
munity custom, to indifference, and to retardation. The 
blame is thus thrown upon parent or pupil. In that case 
large withdrawals have no effect upon the school teacher 
and student of education to prompt him to study the situa- 
tion more seriously. But just this influence is needed. No 
apology need be made for the position here taken that those 
responsible for the direction of the school are too frequently 
satisfied with their work and too indisposed to hold them- 
selves responsible for bettering conditions. If the real cause 
for withdrawal is found in the curriculum itself, the school 
authorities, not pupils or parents, must be held responsible 
for the exodus of pupils. 

Therefore the various causes assigned should be examined 
with reference to the curriculum. It may seem scarcely 
warranted to look to the nature of the curriculum for ex- 
planation of the custom of any community in keeping pupils 
in school throughout the elementary grades or withdrawing 
them early. But it is probable that the custom of a com- 
munity in this respect is considerably influenced by the 
work done in a school.^ Just this may be expected : a 
community will develop a habit of sending children to school 
if in that school work is done which appeals strongly to the 
patrons as valuable. Ayres gives ^ the percentage of pupils 
retained to the fourth year of the high school in each of 
fifty-one cities. A portion of these data is sufficient to 
illustrate the difference in the customs of the communities. 

1 For an account of "How a School Built a Town" see Page, W. H., The 
Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths. 

* Ayres, L. P., Laggards in Our Schools, page 64. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 49 

Cnr Pas Cent 

1. Newton, Mass , 38 

2. Waltham, Mass 29 

3. Aurora, 111 25 

4. Newark, Ohio 25 

21. Omaha, Neb 13 

22. Newport, R. 1 12 

23. Grand Rapids, Mich 11 

24. Springfield, Mass 11 

48. Newark, N. J 3 

49. New York, N. Y 3 

50. Philadelphia, Pa 3 

51. Wheeling, W. Va 3 

Social and industrial conditions in these various places 
contribute somewhat to the retention of pupils. School 
management shares the influence. It may be claimed that 
the actual difference between the curriculum in Newton 
and that in Wheeling is not so great as between the per- 
centages of pupils retained to the fourth year of high school, 
38 and 3, respectively. But the value of that school work 
to those communities is probably proportional to the re- 
tention of pupils. 

Retardation as an assigned cause is probably largely due 
to the failure of school officials to provide that kind of 
schoolroom occupation which is suited to certain types of 
boys and girls. Those pupils designated as retarded do 
rank low when tested by the particular types of intellectual 
work called for in the traditional school. Some mental 
tests of another nature might compel us to question if the 
retarded pupils might not be the accelerated ones in a cur- 
riculum made to fit their needs. 

In a similar way, one may criticize all these assigned 
causes for withdrawal. Lack of differentiation is due to a 
curriculum so stereotyped that little opportunity is left 
for individual variation. Indifference is readily explained 
on the basis of the curriculum not being constructed accord- 



50 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

ing to tastes and abilities of pupils. Desire for activity is 
readily understood when one notes the extent to which the 
traditional curriculum is one of passively learning rather 
than one of actively doing. 

There is no intention to suggest here that these assigned 
causes should be disregarded. They may be accepted as 
the immediate causes for withdrawal. But professional 
sincerity invites the student of education to investigate 
more carefully to find that cause for which he can hold 
himself largely responsible. This cause is the curriculum 
as an expression of the work of the school.^ 

CONSEQUENCES OF THIS WITHDRAWAL 

Inefficiency of the traditional curriculum. One of the 
consequences of withdrawal is a verdict by the pupils that 
the work does not meet their needs. Withdrawal becomes 
an index of inefficiency of the school work. The curriculum 
is judged wanting. 

Withdrawal becomes elimination. The discussion of this 
chapter was opened with the term " withdrawal." This 
term and " elimination " have been used throughout the 
chapter as practically synonymous. But the chapter must 
close with a substitution of " elimination " for "withdrawal." 
Evidence seems to be conclusive that pupils do not withdraw 
as though by their own choice. They are eliminated from 
school by the conditions imposed upon them. The law re- 
quires attendance, but leaves to school authorities the 
provision for school occupation. School teachers do their 
best by methods, devices, and motivation to make the work 
congenial to the pupils. In spite of these efforts, the tradi- 
tional school eliminates the many who are not constructed 
on this Procrustean plan. 

^ Compare Dewey, School and Society, 1915 edition, pages 24-28. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 51 

Curriculum needs reconstruction. The situation pre- 
sented above is not new. Many efforts have been made to 
revise the old curriculum to meet new conditions ; methods, 
devices, and motivation have been introduced. Neverthe- 
less, changes do not keep pace with the advance in needs 
and demands. The situation calls for a curriculum so con- 
structed that changes in social and industrial conditions 
shall determine the nature and extent of changes in the 
curriculum itself. 

Supplementary Readings 

Atres, L. p. Laggards in Our Schools, pages 8-18, 49-72, 99-116, 159- 

169. 
Blan, L. B. a Special Study of the Incidence of Retardation. 
Brooks, S. D. "Causes of Withdrawal from School." Educational 

Review, Vol. 26, pages 362-393. 
Dearborn, W. F. "Qualitative Elimination from School." Elementary 

School Teacher, 1909, Vol. 10, pages 1-13. 

"The Relative Standing of Pupils in the High School and the Uni- 
versity." Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, 1909. 

Major, J. W. The Withdrawal of Pupils from School. Master's Thesis, 

University of Missouri, 1906. 
Report : When and Why Children Fail. New York Bureau of Municipal 

Research, 1911. 

Conditions under Which Children Leave School. United States 

Bureau of Labor, 1910, Vol. 7. 

Staples, 0. B. "Schooling and Financial Success." Elementary School 

Teacher, 1910, Vol. 10, pages 261-269. 
Strater, G. D., and Thorndike, E. L. Educational Administration, 

pages 3-53. 
Thorndike, E. L. The Elimination of Pupils from School. Bureau of 

Education Bulletin, No. 4, 1907. 
Woodward, C. M. Age of Withdrawal from Public Schools. Report, 

Commissioner of Education, 1894-1895, pages 1161-1170. 

When and Why Pupils Leave School. Report, Commissioner of 

Education, 1899-1900, pages 1364-1374. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Four 

Criticism of school work is inevitable. 

No generally accepted standard for school values has been de- 
vised. 

Criticisms are passed by all classes of people. 

The reliability of any criticism depends upon the rating of the 
critic by the community. 

The spirit of criticism should be constructive. 
A survey of current criticism shows much weakness in the schools. 

School surveys indicate that school work is inadequately con- 
nected with the life of the community. 

Researches in school subjects show them less valuable than 
commonly supposed. 

Educational movements, such as the junior high school, indus- 
trial education, etc., strongly imply lack of eflSciency in the 
traditional schools. 

Representative educators are expressing some well-merited 
criticism of our schools. 

Laymen and popular school gossip add to the adverse criticism. 
The traditional curriculum may be characterized as : 

Aimless ; it does not function in the lives of pupils. 

Lifeless ; mere form subjects predominate. 

Disconnected ; fourteen school subjects are treated as unre- 
lated except when arbitrarily and superficially correlated as 
schoolroom arts. 

Congested ; the crowded situation is due to the treatment of 
empty details. 

Wasteful; "progress through the grades" consists of "mark- 
ing time" and "busy work." 

Untimely; the traditional curriculum is not apace with the 
vital issues of the day. 



52 



CHAPTER FOUR 

The Traditional Curriculum 
Criticism by Adults 

SOURCES OF CRITICISM 

Criterion of judgment. As yet we have no generally 
accepted standard by which we may judge the value of 
the curriculum used in our schools.^ Much study is being 
directed to the arrangement of tests, by which the pupils' 
work in the various school subjects is measured. These 
tests, which are rapidly changing, may lead, by the trial- 
and-error method, to an acceptable standard of judgment. 
As will be discussed in later chapters, it is greatly to be 
feared that these tests aim to measure the content of specific 
school subjects rather than the effect that these studies have 
upon the behavior of people in society. But there are some 
indications of a tendency to judge school work in terms of 
conduct outside of school. In so far as we regard the school 
curriculum as a real means of aiding in our adjustments in 
real life, just so far will we aim to test school work in terms 
of life activities. At present, there seems to be no satis- 
factory formulation of such a standard. However, there 
is a body of criticisms which merits attention. 

Sources of criticism. Criticisms are made by those who 
are dissatisfied and by those who have a professional and 
constructive interest in the service of the school. The dis- 
satisfied are usually those who are parents or patrons and 
express themselves orally in school gossip. This causes 
some local disturbance and unpleasantness. Such criticism 
is often ill-founded and misdirected. It is, however, an 
expression of the reaction of the people upon the work of 

^ Compare McMurry, F. M., Elementary School Standards. 
53 



54 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

the school and should not be disregarded ; but such criticism 
cannot be discussed here. 

The sources of criticism to be considered here are : school 
surveys; special studies made by students of education; 
certain educational movements; opinions of educators; 
the attitude of the laborer and layman; and current com- 
ment in periodicals. These will be surveyed very briefly. 

Reliability of criticisms. Without an accepted standard, 
the validity or strength of criticisms is dependent upon the 
critics' standing in the community. Up to date our school 
surveys are largely the findings and opinions of men and 
women who have won through their educational work a 
large measure of public confidence. Scientific studies which 
might be verified by others are only in their initial stages, 
but the public attaches much significance to their tentative 
conclusions. Even the layman is winning consideration for 
his criticisms, especially in a democratic government where 
every man participates in the control of public institutions. 

The spirit of criticism. Conscientious criticism is not 
mere faultfinding, though unfortimately a few people are 
in the habit of complaining without offering any remedial 
suggestions. Fortunately these are the exception. Criti- 
cism, from whatever source, should be gratefully received 
in so far as it contains suggestions for improvement. Any 
other criticism should be disregarded. Only by this atti- 
tude toward criticism can real profit result from the studies 
and opinions of others. 

SUEVEY OF CRITICISMS 

School surveys. Scores of school surveys have been made 
with the purpose of checking up the work of the schools and 
making such criticisms as may lead to greater efficiency. 
The large number of such surveys already conducted indi- 
cates the value assigned to them. Space forbids a complete 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 55 

summary of the criticisms made in those surveys. Only a 
few representative criticisms will be cited. 

School work is inadequately connected with the life of the 
community. This criticism is apparently the most common 
one in these surveys. Indeed this criticism is stated or 
strongly implied in nearly every report. In their report 
upon the survey of the schools at Butte, Montana/ Pro- 
fessors Strayer, Bachman, and Cubberley call attention to 
the new conception of education in these words : "... 
the point of emphasis . . . has been shifted from mere 
information and drill to the needs of the child as an in- 
dividual. . . . the purpose in education has come to be, 
more and more, to prepare children for intelligent participa- 
tion in the social, domestic, economic, and political life of 
the future, of which they will soon form a part." They 
then criticize adversely the curriculum by saying : " The 
courses of study provided for Butte's children represent 
essentially an earlier conception of education, where drill 
on the mere fundamentals of knowledge was conceived to 
be the essential purpose of public education. . . . this 
newer conception of the purpose of education has as yet 
been but dimly conceived by either teachers or school 
officers here." The foregoing criticism is representative of 
those made upon other city schools. In the Rural Survey 
in Maryland ^ is the characteristic conclusion : "... the 
curriculum of the rural school contains very little that dis- 
tinctly prepares for country life. ... A readjustment is 
desirable so that the studies pursued would be more closely 
correlated with the life and interests of the community." 

This one sweeping criticism may readily include others. 
In his part of the survey of the schools of New York City, 
McMurry emphasizes the lack of motivation as that which 

1 Survey of the School System of Butte (1913-1914), page 49.. 

2 Rural Survey in Maryland, 1911-1912, pages 75, 108. 



56 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

forbids effective school work. This absence of purpose is 
due to the gross formality of the work and the fact that 
it does not touch the real life of the pupil. This lack of 
motivation as an adverse criticism appears in many of 
these school surveys. 

" In Vermont as elsewhere there are many complaints 
that pupils who have completed the school course are unable 
to do satisfactory work in positions requiring the use of 
arithmetic and English. This criticism is often turned 
against those who were most satisfactory as pupils. The 
difficulty is not that these subjects did not receive enough 
time in school, but rather that the processes were merely 
memorized and the memory kept alive by frequent drills. 
The children never saw that these processes had any prac- 
tical application, consequently the knowledge was not so 
organized that it became a part of the child's experience. 
The remedy is to be found in such an organization of the 
subject matter that children can use it." ^ This criticism 
that the fundamentals are not mastered applies also to the 
whole content of the course of study. Not more drill is 
needed but more study of those phases of life in which these 
fundamentals naturally function. 

These surveys clearly indicate that the problem of the 
school is much more than mere method of class work. Most 
of these surveys are social studies — examinations into the 
service of the school in the community. 

Researches in school subjects. Various studies have 
been made — and are being continued — essentially with 
an inquiry as to the effectiveness of subject matter and 
method in the different school subjects. None of these 
investigations has been carried so far as to endanger seriously 
the position of the present subjects in the schedule of school 

' Hillegas, M. B., Education in Vermont. Carnegie Foundation for the 
Advancement of Teaching, Bulletin No. 7, 1914, page 47. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 57 

work. Nevertheless, the investigations seem to reflect upon 
the content of the work in the traditional subjects. 

Arithmetic. In 1902 Rice ^ conducted extensive tests, 
guided by two questions : (1) What results are accomplished ? 
(2) How much time is used in the work ? In his examination 
of errors in the pupils' work, he concluded that the vast 
majority were due to a complete absence of effective thought 
on the part of the pupils. Stone ^ inquired as to two aspects 
of work in arithmetic : the fundamentals or the more formal 
operations, and reasoning. He concluded that the correla- 
tion between reasoning and the better courses of study is 
high ; that those who have been most interested in improv- 
ing courses of study have been most concerned with improve- 
ments along the line of concreteness or intrinsic worth of 
subject matter. In his study of the arithmetical abilities 
of pupils in New York City, Courtis concluded : " The 
average child in New York City will be able to do abstract 
work rapidly but inaccurately; simple reasoning work, 
slowly." In advising changes, Courtis recommended that 
" a study be made of the social life of all types of children 
to determine the material available for problem work." ' 
Suzzallo * surveys the general tendency in the current prac- 
tices of teaching arithmetic and calls attention to the decided 
shift in emphasis from academic to social aims, which has 
the effect of substituting social utility for the formal training 
of the traditional course. 

Spelling. Rice opened the inquiry here by a study and 
report upon " The Futility of the Spelling Grind." ^ He was 
led to propose a more restricted and more carefully selected 

^ Rice, J. M., Scientific Management in Education, pages 100-179. 
^ Stone, C. W., Arithmetical Abilities. 

^ Courtis, S. A., New York Reports (1912), Courtis Tests in Arithmetic, 
pages 153, 155. 

* Suzzallo, H., The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. 
^ First printed in the Forum for April, 1897. 



58 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

vocabulary. Cook and O'Shea ^ examined considerable 
correspondence and tabulated the words used : 

186 words used by all correspondents 

577 words used by a majority of the correspondents 

2207 words used by less than a majority of the correspondents 

2230 words used by one writer only 

The authors concluded that " everyday neeas are not con- 
sulted in the framing of spelling lists but that the dogma 
of formal discipline . . . and the domination of common 
schools by higher institutions have been the forces at work." 
The Division of Education in the Russell Sage Foundation 
conducted studies to discover the thousand words most 
commonly used in writing. This limitation clearly suggests 
a weakness in the wide range of words so usually studied in 
the traditional school, and suggests a vocabulary more in 
tune with everyday use. In his study of the measurement 
of efficiency in spelling. Starch ^ is not especially concerned 
with the vocabulary selected, but his conclusion may easily 
reflect upon the traditional organization, in which so much 
confidence is shown in arranging words to suit the abilities 
of pupils in the grades. " The highest one third of the 
pupils in any given grade on the average are equal in effi- 
ciency to the pupils in the grade next above it, and the 
lowest one third are equal in efficiency to the pupils of the 
next grade below it. This leaves only the middle one third 
of pupils who are properly placed." This means that the 
vocabulary actually used is not adapted to the abilities of 
the majority of the grade and thus is not suited to the real 
needs. The investigation of Cornman ^ led him to advise 
that spelling be taught, not as a special subject, but only 
incidentally. One of Suzzallo's generalizations ^ is that 

-1 Cook, W. A., and O'Shea, M- V., The Child and His Spelling. 
^ Journal of. Educational Psychology, Vol. 6, pages 167-186. 
' Cornman, O. P., Spelling in the Elementary School. 
* Suzzallo, H., The Teaching of Spelling. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 59 

there is a marked tendency to teach no spelling until the 
pupils have a real need for such in written composition, 
and that there is an increased dependence upon incidental 
acquisition of spelling. This means a decided change in the 
curriculum in spelling. 

Grammar. In 1906 Hoyt inquired as to the place of 
grammar in the elementary school. His investigations led 
him to conclude : " . . . the subject as generally taught is 
not of sufficient value to deserve the place it commonly 
occupies in the elementary curriculum." ^ Rapeer ^ carried 
this study further and with other data verijBed Hoyt's con- 
clusion of seven years earlier. Briggs also supplemented 
Hoyt's study with special reference to formal discipline, 
which has been so highly valued by those who adhere to 
the study of grammar. Briggs concluded, "... these par- 
ticular children ... do not, as measured by the means 
employed, show in any of the abilities tested improvement 
that may be attributed to their training in formal grammar." ' 
A more direct thrust at the subject of grammar was recently 
made by Charters.* He showed that most of the errors made 
by school pupils are within a very narrow range, and that the 
content of grammar might be considerably reduced if the 
purpose is to correct the common errors of children. A 
similar study with similar conclusions was made at the same 
time by Superintendent Thompson of Waukegan, Illinois. 

Other school subjects. Similar investigations are in progress 
in other school subjects. Thorndike,^ Starch,^ and Kelley ^ 
have begun investigations in reading in the elementary 

1 Teachers College Record, Vol. 7, No. 5, page 22, 1906. 

* Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol, 4, pages 125-137, 1913. 
3 Teachers College Record, Vol. 14, No. 4, page 92, 1913. 

* Bulletin, University of Missouri, Educational Series, No. 9. 

6 Teachers College Record, Vol. 16, No. 5, 1915, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1916. 
^ Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 6, pages 1-24, 1915. 
^ Bulletin, University of Kansas, Studies by the Bureau of Educational 
Measurements and Standards, No. 3, 1915. 



60 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

schools. Results obtained from reading tests, in which 
rapidity and the amount remembered were the predominant 
factors, cast no reflection on the content of the traditional 
reading course. At present the tests are concerned prin- 
cipally with the mechanics of reading. Not until investi- 
gators begin to consider the appreciation of literature read, 
will they be likely to question the procedure and formalities 
of the traditional reading course. 

Dunn ^ has opened the question of a possible improvement 
upon civil government and history as usually given. His 
study shows a marked tendency, in various schools in the 
country, to substitute a study of current problems in social, 
industrial, and political life for the usual formal work in 
these social studies. 

Educational movements. Educational movements are of 
a constructive nature. In them, however, adverse criticism 
upon traditional practice is directly expressed or only im- 
plied. (1) The junior high school movement seems to be a 
definite criticism of the work of the seventh, eighth, and 
ninth grades of the traditional school. The advocates of 
this new school organization complain that in these three 
grades there is a great waste of time, largely due to the lack 
of new material offered in the advanced grades. In other 
words, the curriculum of the upper grades is without content. 
In theory at least, it is claimed that this junior high school 
supplies industrial studies and real motivation, both of 
which are wanting in the curriculum of the old school. 
(2) A similar movement is seen in the rapidly increasing 
emphasis upon vocational and industrial education. Na- 
tional legislation has greatly assisted in this, as seen in the 
Smith-Hughes Act (1917) and the Smith-Lever Act (1914). 
Various states have promptly reacted by legislation to co- 

^ Dunn, A. W., The Social Studies in Secondary Schools. . Bureau of Edu- 
cation, Bulletin No. 28, 1916. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 61 

operate with the national government. This movement 
virtually stamps the traditional school as not providing 
an education and a training of a sufficiently practical sort. 
School work in touch with real life is called for. (3) Closely 
allied to this is the movement to grant school credit for home 
work.^ In this provision for supplementing the work of 
the school this criticism is implied: school work of today 
lacks just that relation to store, shop, factory, and home 
now so urgently demanded. (4) There has also been a 
general movement to simplify the course of study in the 
elementary school. *' Much effort has been spent in sim- 
plifying the course of study. In arithmetic, for example, 
there is an attempt to eliminate obsolete subject matter. 
In language study stress is placed upon speaking and writ- 
ing with clearness, rather than upon the mere mechanics of 
composition. Hygienic living is emphasized and not the 
memorizing of anatomical terms, while courses in geography 
dwell upon the fact that the study of the earth is not a study 
of the location of capes, etc., but a study of the work of the 
world. In brief, courses of study show much improvement 
in the arrangement and in the selection of material, though 
many schools in the small towns and cities still adhere to 
old-time courses, teaching subject matter that never had 
and never will have any direct bearing on life, especially on 
child life." ^ (5) The wider use of the school plant has 
received much emphasis in recent years. The criticism 
upon the curriculum is only indirect as yet, but the indica- 
tions are that this movement heralds a considerable change 
in the work of the school itself. The wider use of the school 
plant is already linking the school more closely to the life 
of the community. This is a long step toward overcoming 
the isolation of the school from the home and community. 

^ Alderman, L. R., School Credit for Home Work. 

* Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1915, Vol. 1, page 69. , 



62 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

This movement is naturally a reaction upon the use of the 
conventional curriculum. 

Representative opinions of educators. It would be abso- 
lutely impossible to give a complete summary of the criti- 
cisms that educational men have made upon the traditional 
curriculum. Only an indication can be given of the great 
number of criticisms being made by such leaders. Professor 
Dewey * has pointed out the serious conflict between new 
social needs and the traditional means of preparing to meet 
those needs. And in such a conflict there can be no question 
which side must yield. The case of the child and of society 
demands a reconstruction of the school work. Professor 
Hanus has complained that the schools have attended to 
" culture " of a formal sort, but have not attended to the 
problems ^of real living. The schools " have been afraid of 
* utilitarian ' aims, and, sometimes, by a curiously inade- 
quate conception of their real function they have even 
measured their own usefulness by the extent to which they 
have kept the distinctly useful out of their work." ^ Pro- 
fessor McMurry applied his four " standards " to the cur- 
riculum used in the schools of New York City and concluded : 
" (1) The courses are, in general, baldly abstract ; and, if 
they appeal to young people, it is due rather to accident 
than to any skillful provision for motive on the part of those 
who selected their subject matter. ... (2) Many topics 
that have little worth are included and many others that 
are a very source of life are omitted. (3). . . the under- 
lying principles, or unifying ideas of these subjects being 
largely omitted they fall into detached facts, having the 
minimum amount of organization. (4) . . . so far as the 
individuality of children is concerned, the curriculum and 

' For the most concise statement of his views see his three monographs. 
The Educational Situation, The Child and the Curriculum, and School and 
Society. 

' Hanus, P. H., The Beginnings of Industrial Education, page 4. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 63 

syllabi not only make no provision for preserving and de- 
veloping it, but . . . their influence tends somewhat in the 
opposite direction." ^ Abraham Flexner, Secretary of the 
General Education Board, in proposing a general policy 
for " A Modern School," ^ criticizes the traditional school 
in these terms : " Generally speaking, it may be safely 
affirmed that the subjects commonly taught, the time at 
which they are taught, the manner in which they are taught, 
and the amounts taught are determined by tradition, not 
by a fresh and untrammeled consideration of living and 
present needs." 

Draper pointedly commented upon our school work : 
" The public school system has had but little thought of 
craftsmanship, by which the greater part of the people 
must live, and upon which the moral and intellectual health 
of the people and the greatness of the nation must depend ; 
the work of the schools has led almost exclusively to mere 
culture and to professional and managing employ- 
ments. . . ." ^ 

Edmond Holmes, an English educator, may be cited as 
another representative critic. Mr. Holmes, once an in- 
spector of schools in England, severely censures the conduct 
of elementary education. He contrasts " the path of me- 
chanical obedience " in the conventional school with " the 
path of self-realization " in the school that meets present 
needs. " The education given in thousands of our elemen- 
tary schools is, then, in the highest degree anti-educational." * 

Munroe sharply criticizes the traditional school : " Custom 
expects a high school to meet the unreal demands of the 
college, but does not expect it to prepare for the real and 
pressing requirements of daily life." Strictly in line with 

^ Report on School Inquiry, pages 111-114. 

2 Monograph published by the General Education Board, 1916. 

3 Draper, A. S., Our Children, Our Schools, and Our Industries, page 55. 
* Holmes, E., What Is and What Might Be, page 144. 



64 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

this the common school treats all individuals with the same 
uniform course. " A uniform course is the very embodiment 
of inequality, making the weak weaker, the dull duller, the 
cross-grained more out of touch with the rest of mankind." ^ 
A report of the committee of the National Education Associa- 
tion 2 on economy of time in education listed reasons for waste 
of time. Four of the nine given are : " Covering unim- 
portant and unpractical topics " ; " Needless multiplication 
of the subjects taught " ; " Hopelessly expending energies 
upon non-essentials " ; " Routine practice, odds and ends, 
' fads and frills ' generally." 

Testimony from laymen. Non-schoolmen have their im- 
pressions of the schools and express them. Considerable 
credit must be given laymen for their educational thoughts, 
which have been developed by our democratic government. 
The supervisor of apprenticeship schools of the Santa Fe 
Railway System complains that the public schools fail to 
develop in the pupils ability in spelling, writing, and arith- 
metic ; that more attention is given to " culture " than to 
insight into social and industrial conditions and to training 
in attitude toward work.' Labor organizations, as well as 
individual laborers who give the school any attention, are 
not satisfied with the training given the prospective laborer 
while in the elementary schools.* Samuel Gompers, Presi- 
dent of the American Federation of Labor, is quoted as 
saying : " The old cultural ideals of education, dealing 
with the abstract only, denied to the great majority of 
children an education adapted to their minds and natures, 
and hence failed to fit them for the duties and possibilities 

^ Munroe, J. P., New Demands in Education, pages 4, 37-38. 

2 National Education Association, 1909, page 374. 

3 Article by F. W. Thomas in National Education Association, 1914, 
pages 177-184. 

* Consult: Report, New York State Department of Labor, for 1908; 
Report, Vocational Survey of Minneapolis, 1913 ; Report, Vocational Edu- 
cation Survey of Richmond, 1916. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 65 

of the work of life." ^ The superintendent of schools at 
Solvay, New York, once asked twelve firms, representing 
employments into which pupils leaving the Solvay schools 
would probably go, what fractions were used in their indus- 
tries, ^he answers included only the following: ^, ^, ^, 

h h i' TO"' tV' tf' tV' ITT' ^V' T¥' wi' This is, of course, 
only an implied criticism upon the school arithmetic. " The 
schools do so little really to interest the child in the life of 
production," says Jane Addams.' Forbush comments upon 
a report that of 666 pupils who withdrew from school 580 
claimed they had left because of poverty. " The actual 
circumstances were carefully investigated, and it was found 
out that with 390 of them this was a mere pretext. The 
actual reason was, the children were bored." ^ This last 
statement is probably only opinion, but as such is repre- 
sentative of opinions of many who are more concerned with 
children than schools. In literature one frequently meets 
thrusts at the inefficiency of school work. " Emmy Lou, 
laboriously copying digits, looked up . . ." ^ 

Popular school gossip. The public press and its readers 
find certain pleasure in school gossip. While much of this 
must not be relied upon as safe judgment, some of it is very 
representative of the impression the public schools are mak- 
ing upon the public generally. Keeping an eye upon press 
reports and comments will lead one to look more critically 
upon the actual work of the school. This popular school 
gossip need not present facts ; it renders service if it pro- 
vokes thought on the part of school men. " What good was 
your schooling ? " " Hypocrisy taught in schools — instead 
of discovering what he likes, the child is told what he ought 

^ Quoted in Report of Commissioner of Education, 1916, Vol. 1, page 162. 
« Report of Superintendent, 1913-1914. 

* Addams, Jane, Democracy and Social Ethics, page 193.' 

* Forbush, W. B., The Coming Generation, page 281. 
^ Martin, G. M., Emmy Lou, page 1. 



66 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

to like " ; " Calls schools a jumble " ; " Pupils show great 
ignorance " ; " Pupils add sums for the privilege of trips 
in * coaches ' " ; "A new school era dawns — the child to 
have a chance to grow " ; " Poor schools cause crime " ; 
*' Vitalizing classroom instruction " — such are the head- 
lines in the current press. They readily suggest the nature 
of criticisms continually passed. 

Extent of criticism. It is impossible to make any adequate 
resume of current criticisms of the traditional curriculum. 
What has been presented above is merely intended to sug- 
gest the sources and to represent the nature of criticisms 
made. If one looks into adverse criticisms for the construc- 
tive suggestions they may contain, great profit may result 
by continuing this sort of investigation. 

CHARACTERIZATIONS OF THE CURRICULUM 

At the risk of indefiniteness an abstract of the above 
criticisms — and others not there included — is offered, in 
the form of characterizations of the traditional curriculum. 

Aimless. The seven, eight, or nine years' course in the 
elementary school seems to be with no more definite purpose 
than to " prepare for complete living," which is too in- 
definite to be an effective aim ; to occupy the child until 
he is sufficiently matured to prepare for some station in 
life or enter an occupation without preparation ; to give 
the child " general discipline," which in earlier times was 
regarded as suitable preparation for anything. 

Lifeless.^ The traditional school is, in the main, isolated 
from the real life of the child and the community. McMurry 
has well said, " The nature of children suggests that the end 
point of a good education should be action." Contrary to 

^ Compare characterization of curriculum in Portland as "dead." See 
Survey of Portland Schools. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 67 

this the curriculum really consists of form studies, and can 
thus connect with life only when " applications " are made. 
Usually these are artificial. The traditional curriculum 
consists of content to be passively learned rather than prob- 
lems to be actively studied. * 

Disconnected. Fourteen school subjects are listed by 
Holmes in his study of the distribution of time ^ in the con- 
struction of the school schedule. This number is exclusive 
of an indefinite group labeled " miscellaneous." Each is 
essentially a unit in itself. Relation to other subjects is 
largely a matter of arbitrary correlation, which then be- 
comes artificial and superficial. 

Congested. With so many subjects, each seeming to 
have a right on the program, and with others seeking ad- 
mission, it is not to be wondered that teachers complain of 
the work being crowded. It is this number of subjects and 
their subdivisions that make the total amount of work seem 
large. This minute division of school work is the cause of 
a large number of details. Here is the real source of apparent 
increase of work. The curriculum is congested not by the 
richness of its content but by the number of its empty 
details. 

Wasteful. Any plan of work which is aimless, lifeless, dis- 
connected, and congested must necessarily consume valuable 
effort of children who are obliged to follow such outlined 
work. Those acquainted with conditions in the elementary 
schools are quite in agreement that " progress through the 
grades " consists of much marking time. Drills and reviews 
are the " busy work " that occupies the time during which 
the pupil is developing by other influences or merely mark- 
ing time until the compulsory attendance law releases him 
from school. 

I Fourteenth Year Book of the National Society for the Study of Edu- 
cation. 



68 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Untimely. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the 
traditional curriculum is that it is untimely. At the very- 
time when home life is said to be in a more unstable condition 
than it has been since the beginning of the Christian Era,^ 
and when social progress issues so many calls for conscious 
and persistent human efifort,^ at such times how amiss it 
seems to devote so much attention to a curriculum of the 
past and of passing formalities, and so little attention to a 
curriculum of the present and of surpassing opportunities. 
This is an age of intensely interesting progress. Changes in 
industrial and social life are taking place rapidly. The 
curriculum that is not bound up closely with these vital 
problems of contemporary life is nothing less than untimely. 

Supplementary Readings 

A Few of the Leading School Surveys 
Baltimore, Md., 1911. 
Butte, Mont., 1914. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, 1915. Industrial Survey. 
East Orange, N. J., 1912. 

Hammond, Ind., 1915. People, Industries, and Schools. 
Indianapolis, Ind., 1917. Vocational Survey. 
Lane County, Ore., 1916. 
Leavenworth, Kan., 1915. 
Maryland, 1912. Rural. 

Minneapolis, Minn., 1913. Vocational Survey. 
Montgomery County, Md., 1913. 
New York City, 1912. 
Oakland, Cal., 1915. 
Ohio, 1914. 
Portland, Ore., 1913. 

Richmond, Va., 1916. Vocational Survey. 
Salt Lake City, Utah, 1915. 
South Bend, Ind., 1914. 
Springfield, 111. 1914. 

^ EUwood, C. A., Sociology and Modem Social Problems, page 147. 
* Todd, A. T., Theories of Social Progress, page 148. 



THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM 69 

St. Louis, Mo., 1917. 

Vermont, 1914. 

Wisconsin, 1912. Riu-al Schools. 

A Few Investigations in School Subjects 

BoBBiTT, F. What the Schools Teach and Might Teach. 

Cook, W. A., and O'Shea, M. V. The Child and His Spelling. 

CoRNMAN, O. p. Spelling in the Elementary School. 

CoTJETis, S. A. Measurement of Classroom Products. 

Jtjdd, C. H. Measuring the Work of the Public Schools. 

Monroe, W. S., De Voss, J. C, and Kelly, F. J. Educational Tests 

and Measurements. 
Rice, J. M. Scientific Management in Education. 
Stone, C. W. Arithmetical Abilities. 
SuzzALLO, H. The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. 
The Teaching of Spelling. 

A Few Opinions of a Few Educators 

Carney, Mabel. Country Life and the Country School. 
CuBBERLEY, E. P. Changing Conceptions of Education. 
Dewey, J. School and Society. 
DooLEY, W. H. The Education of the Ne'er-Do-Well. 

> Draper, A. S. Our Children, Our Schools, and Our Industries. 
Flexner, a. a Modern School. 

> Hantjs, p. H. The Beginnings of Industrial Education. 
Holmes, E. What Is and What Might Be. 
McMtjrry, F. M. Elementary School Standards. 
Munboe, J. P. New Demands in Education. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Five 

The situation as to the curriculum calls for positive treatment. 
The old curriculum is unsatisfactory. 

Shall the old curriculum be changed or shall a new curriculum 
be made ? 
The usual means of changing the old curriculum are unsatisfactory. 
Omission is not constructive and is uneconomical. 
Enrichment is only a bit of patchwork. 
Motivation is a temporary and arbitrary expedient. 
The study of " minimum essentials " is limited to the tra- 
ditional school subjects. 
Introduction of the practical is only a partial improvement. 
A more fundamental basis for making curricula is needed. 

Principles for guidance must be sought in social problems. 
The curriculum-maker must recognize certain obligations : 
He must be unhampered by the traditional curriculum ; 
He must counsel with others ; 

He must frame general principles for local adaptations ; 
He must be loyal to his task. 
There is danger of conflict between old school conditions and 
new social aims. 
The plan for making curricula consists of : 
A survey of social problems ; 
A survey of progressive school tendencies ; 
The formulation of five principles for an efficient curriculum ; 
The outline of four school studies ; 
An evaluation of methods and results. 



70 



CHAPTER FIVE 

The Making of Curricula 

THE SITUATION 

The old curriculum unsatisfactory. In the precedmg 
chapters an attempt has been made to point out something 
of the extent to which the curriculum of the traditional 
school fails to meet the conditions of modern life. Pupils, 
teachers, and communities show in a variety of ways that 
they are not satisfied. The curriculum of the past may have 
met the needs of the past, but we cannot fail to be impressed 
with the rapid changes taking place in life outside of school. 
This question naturally arises : What necessary changes 
shall be made in the school to keep the pace and really serve 
modern conditions of life? We are ready to modify our 
school work only to the extent that we are satisfied that 
the old curriculum does not meet new conditions. How 
extensive should these changes he? Need they be radical, 
or will slight changes suffice ? 

The problem of change. Do curricula grow or should 
they be definitely made ? Growth is by slight but continued 
change. Most social institutions, as well as biological 
organisms, develop in this way. The traditional curriculum 
seems to have been no exception. Principles Underlying the 
Making of School Curricula have been discussed by Professor 
McMurry.^ This making of curricula suggests more radical 
changes than take place in the customary manner of cur- 
riculum transformation. The usual means of changing cur- 
ricula will be reviewed briefly, then a plan for making 
curricula will be outlined. 

1 Teachers College Record, Vol. 16, No. 4. 1915. 
71 



72 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

USUAL MEANS OF CHANGING CURRICULA 

Omission. It is readily recognized that increase in human 
experience tends to increase the content of the various school 
subjects. Texts in arithmetic, geography, language, his- 
tory, etc., have accumulated content. New subjects have 
also found their way into the traditional course. All this 
has been taking place so gradually that the school world 
was scarcely conscious of the changes. Soon congestion was 
recognized. Conscious and conscientious efforts were made 
here and there to relieve the situation. To omit parts of 
arithmetic or grammar from either the text or the classroom 
required much courage. But in the past twenty years much 
has been taken from the congested curriculum. In the face 
of rapid accessions of subject matter in recent years, omis- 
sions have helped regulate and establish the equilibrium of 
the curriculum. The basis for omission is usually sought in 
the relation of the subject matter in question to life outside 
of school. However, it must be admitted that omission is 
only a negative means of improving the curriculum.^ There 
is the implication that any subject matter may be admitted. 
It loses its place as soon as it fails to meet the tests. Such a 
procedure is not constructive and is uneconomical in the 
development of curricula. 

Enrichment. As subject matter in the old school became 
more and more formal and thus appealed less and less to the 
pupils, enrichment was advocated as a remedy. The 
arithmetics soon contained problems that seemed more imme- 
diately related to life; language lessons were based upon 
scientijBc, historic, and literary subjects ; geography included 
some additional references to the life and activities of men. 
Enrichment was largely by means of adding subject matter 

^ Compare suggestions made by F. M. McMurry, National Education 
Association Reports, 1904, pages 194-206 ; Teachers College Record, Vol. 16, 
No. 4, page 3. 



THE MAKING OF CURRICULA 73 

taken directly from the various activities of people or the 
phenomena of nature. However, such enrichment is clearly 
not a constructive change in the curriculum. It is used 
essentially to piece out the old studies where more timely 
content is needed, and indeed to make the old tolerable. 
' Motivation. Somewhat allied to enrichment is the plan 
of motivating the usual work by the introduction of other 
subject matter related to the topic, a subject matter that 
appeals strongly to children. This method is used to vitalize 
uninteresting work. For example, sand-table construction 
was introduced originally to clarify and objectify, to enrich 
and motivate stories read and facts presented. As a result 
of having the sand table, simple studies in the activities 
of people have been added to the work of the lower grades. 
In a similar way handwork, first used as a handmaid for 
other work, has found a place for itself. Other means, 
similar to motivation, by which subject matter is slightly 
changed, are seen in efforts to " psychologize," " vitalize," 
and " socialize " the school work. All of these agencies 
for improvement are at most only temporary expedients, 
not fundamental reconstruction. Motivation of school 
work implies that the work to be motivated is not strictly 
suitable to the needs, tastes, and abilities of the pupils. 
To vitalize is to admit that certain subject matter is not a 
part of real life ; it ought therefore to have no admission to 
the curriculum. So also, no admission should be given to 
work that needs to be socialized. 

Determination of minimum essentials in elementary school 
subjects. An attempt has been made to modify the content 
of the elementary school subjects by a careful study of the 
use of such subject matter in various activities of out-of-school 
life. For example : the reading of " current literature could 
be profitably employed as a standard for determining the kind 
of geographical information that the school should provide. 



74 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The proposal was to read current newspapers and magazines, 
record the geographical references, and determine from the 
frequency of these references the relative value of the various 
types of geographical information." ^ 

All these studies carry out in a scientific way the problem 
set : the determination of minimum essentials. But in all 
these studies there is present the assumption that the Three-R 
subjects are essentials in the elementary school. But perhaps 
— and probably — community life contains some important 
topics for study, not easily pigeonholed in the traditional 
subjects. 

Introduction of the practical. From time to time the cur- 
riculum has been changed here and there by the introduction 
of what may be termed " practical subjects." This change 
has taken place when those interested have realized that the 
school was not adequately serving the community. This 
is at best only a partial improvement, and the school is made 
practical only in spots. 

Unprincipled change. All the changes indicated are but a 
sort of patchwork. Omissions are made where the curric- 
ulum becomes crowded. Enrichment is suggested where 
the work seems barren. Motivation through the introduc- 
tion of really vital subject matter is attempted where the 
usual work does not appeal. The practical is introduced 
where the course of study seems of little value. By such 
means and others, our school curriculum has been contin- 
ually changing. Indeed, continual change is necessary if 
the school is to serve a rapidly changing and rapidly advanc- 
ing civilization. But the changes noted are without any 
fundamental principle: they are spasmodic, personal, 
temporary, local. In place of such chance adjustments is 

^ Bagley, W. C, The Fourteenth Year Book of the National Society for the 
Study of Education (1915), page 131. See other parts of this year book and 
also the sixteenth year book, for similar studies. 



THE MAKING OF CURRICULA 75 

it not possible to make a curriculum of a more permanent 
character and of universal application ? This is the problem 
undertaken in this volume. 

BASIS FOR MAKING CURRICULA 

Source of guiding principles. There will be probably 
little, if any, disagreement in this general proposition : The 
purpose of the school is to serve society and the individual 
as a member of society. Were there only one individual 
— no group of individuals that make up society — it might 
be well that he educate himself, so as to adjust himself the 
better to his environment, a very barren environment with- 
out other men and their activities. There would be no 
school except for the many — for society. What the school 
shall do depends, therefore, upon how it can serve society. 
The curriculum is an outline of what the school proposes to 
do. This must, therefore, be determined by the needs in 
society. Principles for guidance in making curricula must 
have their source in social problems and conditions. The 
school man who ventures to make curricula should be a 
student of social problems or rely much on the studies of 
such students. 

Obligations of the curriculum-maker. Any one who is 
willing to undertake the task of making a curriculum on any 
such basis as that suggested above must recognize certain 
obligations : 

1 . The curriculum-maker must feel absolutely unhampered 
by the traditional curriculum. This does not mean that he 
is not to make use of the subject matter in the traditional 
school. His obligation is not to get away from the old 
school, but rather to supply the new demands most effec- 
tively. This may necessitate merely a careful selection of 
material vitally related to the school work and present 
needs. Social custom has become such a fetish that it may 



76 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

be difficult for makers of curricula to renounce it and boldly 
face present and future needs. Against this danger the 
curriculum-maker must be on his guard. There is, to be 
sure, some danger on the other side : a danger that the cur- 
riculum-maker will glory in freeing himself from social custom 
and school habit. Racial as well as individual experience 
is helpful, and must not be ruthlessly disregarded. By 
putting these two dangers together we see the situation 
that the curriculum-maker must fearlessly face. He must 
be ready to study this really vital school problem with 
absolute frankness, using or discarding parts or all of the 
traditional curriculum, and introducing such subject matter 
as will result in an effective solution of the new problem. 

2. The curriculum-maker must counsel with others. He 
must be influenced by the student of society — the sociolo- 
gist ; and by the student of the individual — the psycholo- 
gist. He must be influenced also by tendencies in schools 
that are more nearly free from tradition. This policy makes 
impossible the making of a curriculum by an individual 
according to his own idiosyncrasies. 

3. The curriculum-maker must so construct his principles 
and so organize the details of the work that the principles 
may be applied in all cases and the details may be readily 
altered to meet local and temporary conditions. The 
principles that may well control the curriculum in the schools 
of New York City should control also the rural schools in 
Arizona. In the traditional curriculum essentially the same 
details in geography, language, arithmetic, etc., are used 
in both places. This situation is probably not warranted 
by the real social needs. In his planning of details the 
curriculum-maker must provide for local adaptations. 

4. The curriculum-maker must be loyal to his task and 
not compromise with the very conditions he seeks to improve. 
The usual school man cannot be classed with the curriculum- 



THE MAKING OF CURRICULA 77 

maker : he is rather the man who makes adaptations of the 
curriculum made by another to suit his own local conditions. 
Moreover, the curriculum-maker as such is not a principal or 
superintendent of certain schools. The school man must 
compromise, in a way. That is, he must meet conditions 
though at the same time he must endeavor to improve those 
conditions according to a curriculum made by another. 
The curriculum-maker must feel free from local limitations 
but never indifferent or inconsiderate of them. 

Loyalty to his task means that the curriculum-maker 
must be strictly constructive in his work, courageously 
adhering to his principles. Professor McMurry has stated 
a principle of this constructive character. " The subject 
matter for a curriculum should be selected from among those 
experiences that are related to life and are likely, owing to 
their intrinsic nature, to appeal to the pupils directly as 
worth while." ^ Such a principle forbids all question of 
omissions, so much discussed as a problem in curriculum- 
making. Professor McMurry 's constructive principle pro- 
vides no place in the curriculum for any topic that is not 
" related to life " and any topic automatically loses its 
place as soon as it ceases to function in relation to life. 
On this principle the curriculum-maker is wholly relieved 
of making omissions from the old curriculum. There is no 
old curriculum except on the pages of history. Again, such 
a constructive principle excludes such a problem as the 
" inculcation of interests and purposes in pupils." Studies 
related to the life of the pupils themselves are, with very few 
exceptions, if any, genuinely interesting to them. It is a 
truism that people are interested in those affairs that directly 
affect them. The curriculum-maker has not the problem of 
inculcating interests in pupils, though this will probably 
remain the large problem in school work as long as the 
^ Teachers College Record, Vol. 16, No. 4, page 3. 



78 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

traditional curriculum is in use. The great problem of 
the curriculum-maker is to provide the subject matter that 
will intensify and broaden the interests which pupils already 
have, in so far, of course, as they are wholesome. Further, 
such a constructive principle consistently followed forestalls 
that great task of method in endeavoring to present to pupils 
that " larger value of subject matter . . . not necessarily 
apparent to the pupil in advance." ^ These larger values 
are seen by the adult when he looks into the subject matter 
known as geography, history, and language. The subject 
matter strictly related to the life of the pupil has a value 
only so large as is apparent to the pupil. The problem of 
method, occasioned by the effort to present a larger value 
than pupils are naturally prepared to appreciate, is reduced 
to a minimum by adopting a curriculum developed by the 
constructive principle stated by McMurry. 

A source of danger. It has already been intimated that 
the hero-like worship of the traditional school studies is a 
serious danger for one who would make a curriculum in 
keeping with modern conditions. Here is a conjQict similar 
to that pointed out by Professor Dewey fifteen years or more 
ago.2 It is a conflict between the external conditions in the 
older group of school studies and the social aims of the 
modern school. That excellent constructive principle quoted 
in the preceding section must conflict continually with the 
unsocial formalism so securely intrenched in the traditional 
Three R's. " Ye cannot serve two masters " consistently. 
To avoid this danger it is simply imperative that the curric- 
ulum-maker and his counselors survey the needs of people 
and make out a course of study strictly in terms of those 
needs. To make such surveys and then resort at once to 
a reconstruction of grography, history, arithmetic, etc., by 

^ McMurry, F. M., Teachers College Record, Vol. 16, No. 4, page 3. 
^ Dewey, J., The Educational Situation. 



THE MAKING OF CURRICULA 79 

means of omissions, enrichment, and motivation insures 
fundamental conflicts that seriously retard progress.^ 

PROPOSED PLAN FOR CURRICULUM-MAKING 

Pursuant to the policy outlined above for the curriculum- 
maker, the curriculum outlined and discussed in this volume 
has been made as follows : In Chapter Six attention is called 
to some of the social conditions and problems that serve as 
a basis for educational principles. In such a study much 
reliance must be placed in the studies of students of social 
conditions and problems. In Chapter Seven a very brief sur- 
vey of educational tendencies is made as a means of putting 
the curriculum-maker on guard against being too independ- 
ent of the studies and practices of others. In Chapters Eight 
to Twelve, five principles for the construction of curricula are 
discussed. These principles are founded upon social prob- 
lems and the interests of the individual. Chapters Thirteen 
to Sixteen present four school studies as the content of the 
curriculum proposed. A chapter follows with representative 
outlines of possible details. Later chapters include evalua- 
tions of methods and results in the use of such a curriculum. 

It must be insisted that a curriculum thus made will be 
strictly tentative; never static. ?Such a curriculum can 
never become conventional, since it will be governed con- 
stantly by the conditions of life. These conditions are ever 
changing. 

" There is, of course, no permanent solution of the social 
problem possible. In a world of change, each age is neces- 
sarily confronted by new problems which it alone can solve. 
Our quest must not be for a static solution, but for prin- 

* An examination of the Vocational Survey of Minneapolis (1913) and the 
, Vocational Education Survey of Richmond (1916) reveals the fact that surveys 
of life conditions are not in terms of traditional school subjects. 



80 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

ciples which may guide us in seeking some rational control 
over the relations of men to one another." ^ 

It must be insisted, further, that a curriculum is not the 
curriculum. We must have curricula, not one curriculum. 
Moreover, all these curricula should be of essentially the same 
character, a study of the environments and activities of 
people. 

To the scientific student this plan of curriculum-making 
will probably seem lacking in scientific method. The ma- 
terial presented in the next few chapters has none of the 
tabulation of data used by some in the study of curriculum- 
making. ^ It may be said, however, that just such data are 
no less possible here ; and it must be said that, in many of 
these scientific studies, there is danger that more attention 
is given to the reliability of method than to the reliability 
of the data used. The data, moreover, are taken from the 
more objective, mechanical parts of the schoolroom arts, 
not from the normal activities in home and community life. 
The method herein used may be regarded as the observational 
method. Curriculum-making grows out of continual ob- 
serving in community life. 

Supplementary Readings 

BoBBiTT, F. The Curriculum, pages 40-52. 

Carlton, F. T. Education and Industrial Evolution, pages 73-95. 

DuTTON, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administration of Public Education in 

the United States, pages 314-340. 
Hanus, p. H. Educational Aims and Educational Values, pages 45-70. 

"Our Chaotic Education," in Forum, Vol. 33, pages 222-234. 

"A Six-year High School Program," in Educational Review, Vol. 25, 

pages 455-463. 

Horn, E. " Principles for Making Ciuricula in History ." Teachers College 
Record, Vol. 16, No. 4, pages 33-59 (1915). 

1 Ellwood, C. A., The Social Problem, pages 220-221. 

^ Compare two groups of studies in Minimum Essentials presented in the 
Fourteenth and Sixteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of 
Education. 



THE MAKING OF CURRICULA 81 

McMuRRT, F. M. Omissions in the Course of Study. National Education 
Association, 1904, pages 194-202. 

" Principles Underlying the Making of School Curricula." Teachers 

College Record, Vol. 16, No. 4, pages 1-32 (1915). 

" Controlling Ideas throughout the Curriculum." Teachers College 

Record, Vol. 4, No. 2, pages 1-13 (1903) . 

Mters, G. C. "Some Factors Affecting Content of Curricula." School 
Supervision and Administration, Vol. 1, pages 611-616 (1915). 

National Society for the Study of Education. Yearbooks: Four- 
teenth (1915) and Sixteenth (1917) . 

SoLDAN, F. Louis. "Shortening the Period of Elementary Schooling." 
Educational Review, Vol. 25, pages 168-181. 

Withers, J. W. How the Course of Study Should be Determined. National 
Education Association, 1914, pages 235-243. 

YocuM, A. D. The Determinants of the Course of Study. National Edu- 
^cation Association, 1914, pages 223-235. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Six 

The school is not recognized as a social institution. 
School men are engrossed in school machinery. 
Responsibility should rest on school officials. 
"Social efficiency" is indefinite as an aim. 
Sociologist and educator should cooperate. 
Social development shows significant changes. 

In early society the individual was independent. 
As society developed, the individual became dependent. 
In the various stages of society, educational implications are sig- 
nificant : 
Hunting, fishing, and pastoral stages : life is simple ; little 

education is needed. 
Agricultural and handicraft stages : interdependence appears 

and social education becomes a problem. 
Industrial stage : specialization increases the educational prob- 
lem by increasing interdependence. 
Current social problems should effect changes in the curriculum. 
Specialization in industry must be accompanied by an improved 

mental attitude. 
Mechanical efficiency is dangerous without larger perspective. 
The country life problem needs more than a study of agricul- 
ture. 
Moral standards must be raised by a larger view of social 

service. 
Other social problems relate to the family, leisure time, re- 
ligious life. 
Conclusion : social situations demand of the schools a study of life 
as it is. 



82 



CHAPTER SIX 
Social Problems and the Curriculum 

PURPOSE OF THIS CHAPTER 

In the preceding chapters attention was called to certain 
principles which seem to underlie the traditional curriculum 
but which are not in touch with modern life, and to criticisms 
strikingly adverse to the curriculum in present use. This 
criticism is exhibited on the one hand by pupils themselves 
in their early withdrawal — or elimination — from school, 
and on the other hand by adults in current inquiries, school 
surveys, and educational movements. 

The traditional curriculum seems destined to considerable 
modification if it keep pace at all with the progress of the 
public which it is supposed to serve. In the present chapter 
an attempt is made to point out some examples of social 
conditions, to indicate some educational problems involved, 
and thus to suggest changes needed in the school curriculum. 

THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION 

School men and school machinery. The importance of 
the school as a social factor in the community has seemingly 
jiot appealed strongly to educational leaders and to public 
school teachers. There seems to be more attention given to 
the securing of public support of the schools than to the 
rendering of social service through the schools. School 
officials and school teachers are not held sufficiently re- 
sponsible for this unfortunate and unsocial situation. The 
explanation is usually attributed to conditions. For example 
school management is dominated by politics — politics of a 
sort ; membership on school boards is influenced considerably 
by petty politics and personal considerations ; school admin- 

83 



84 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

istrators and supervisors are not selected wholly upon a 
professional basis ; continual banterings between large and 
small parties with interests predominantly self -centered dis- 
rupt any real social service of the school. 

The situation in the Chicago schools during the past 
decade is an excellent illustration of this. " Recently in 
Chicago the superintendent of schools tendered her resigna- 
tion on account of committee interference in professional 
matters for which the community has come to expect the 
superintendent to be responsible. An aroused public opinion 
was followed by the filling of vacancies in the board by mem- 
bers favorable to the superintendent's initiative in all 
educational policies and the board thus constituted refused 
to accept the superintendent's resignation. Thus was the 
modern principle of professional control in educational 
matters validated in our second largest city." ^ But such 
validation is clearly intermittent. 

City politics have entered; labor parties have taken a 
hand ; business corporations have played a part. In smaller 
cities and towns schools are prey to local politics. Again, 
low salaries and scant school supplies are looked upon as 
reasons for failure to render much social service. Further, 
the conservatism of the people is regarded as suflScient justi- 
fication for the lack of social aggressiveness on the part of 
school officials. 

Responsibility of school officials. But after all this is 
said, the real reason is found in the lack of social leadership 
on the part of school men and school women. Much atten- 
tion has been given to studying the psychology of the indi- 
vidual, the nature of the child and the adolescent; school 
teachers have studied intensively and enthusiastically the 
Three R's and associated subjects both as to content and 

1 Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1913, Vol. 1, 
page 95. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 85 

method of teaching; school administrators have devoted 
much time to school organization, management, and finance. 
On the other hand, there is evidence of too little study of 
social problems and the opportunity for social service on the 
part of the schools. The self-complacency of public schools 
engrossed in exercises quite distinct from the activities of 
society is due, in part at least, to this lack of knowledge of 
definite social problems and specific opportunities on the 
part of school men and women. All teachers, especially 
the leading officials, should acquaint themselves with current 
social problems. All school people should develop the habit 
of observing life activities about them and view school work 
in relation to that environment. 

Social efficiency as an aim. The first reference to social 
problems of concern to public schools is an indication that at 
least one function of the schools is social in its nature. 
" Social efficiency " is the aim most emphasized among 
modern educators. Spencer advocated this aim for the 
schools when he insisted that children should be prepared 
for " complete living." Hanus amplifies this notion in the 
words : "To live completely means to be as useful as possible 
and to be happy. By usefulness is meant service, i.e., any 
activity which promotes the material or the spiritual interests 
of mankind, one or both. To be happy one must enjoy 
both his work and his leisure." ^ Butler advances the same 
idea in saying that to become educated one must acquire 
an " adjustment to the spiritual possessions of the race." ^ 
O'Shea adds that education " must seek to develop social 
action." ^ Bagley's contribution is : " (1) That person 
only is socially efficient who is not a drag upon society; 
... (2) That man only is socially efficient who, in addition 

^ Hanus, P. H., Educational Aims and Educational Values, page 5. 
2 Butler, N. M., Meaning of Education, page 17. 
' O'Shea, M. V., Education as Adjustment, page 95. 



86 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

to * pulling his own weight,' interferes as little as possible 
with the efforts of others. ... (3) That man is socially 
most efficient who not only fulfills these two requirements, 
but also lends his energy consciously and persistently to that 
further differentiation and integration of social forces which 
is everywhere synonymous with progress." ^ 

Such expressions are well intended. The danger is that 
they may effect too little change in the work of school 
officials and school teachers. One recent effort to carry 
out this theory of social efficiency is recognized in what is 
characteristically termed " supplemental education." ^ The 
term " supplemental " implies that public school work does 
not supply adequate preparation for " complete living " 
and for " social efficiency." And further, the character of 
the education to which this term is applied indicates that 
study of a very practical sort not given in the public schools 
is needed. This supplemental education is given in cor- 
respondence courses, through which the student acquires 
information for immediate use in his own work ; in evening 
schools, conducted for the special purpose of meeting prac- 
tical needs, as in courses in " arithmetic for mechanics," 
" arithmetic for clerks," " arithmetic for errand boys " ; 
in special schools, conducted in manufacturing establish- 
ments, mercantile houses, and the like, where employees 
are instructed in the everyday problems confronting them. 
The predominating character of this education is its direct- 
ness in meeting real needs. This is one of the characteristic 
" present day tendencies in Education." ^ 

We may readily recognize these tendencies, but we must 
also acknowledge that education of a direct, social-efficiency 

^ Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, pages 62-64. 
"^ Dean, A. D., The Worker and the State, pages 287-317. Leake, A. H.> 
Industrial Education, pages 93-126. 

' See Graves, F. P., A Student's History of Education, pages 418-440. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 87 

nature is not in our schools today. School men have ac- 
cepted for some years this doctrine of social efficiency. 
Their failure to fashion the work of the schools in accordance 
with this doctrine and their tenacious adherence to the 
traditional curriculum which no longer effectively functions 
in present social life, are largely due to the two causes 
presented above. First, school officials and school teachers 
do not read simple social studies within their reach and in 
consequence do not observe simple social conditions in which 
they work sufficiently to be informed as to how the schools 
could function in their social environment. Second, social 
efficiency as an educational aim is usually presented in too 
general and indefinite terms to enable many school people 
to profit much by it. Modern educational psychology 
emphasizes the particularizing of instruction. That prin- 
ciple should be applied here. 

SOCIOLOGIST AND EDUCATOR 

School men must not attempt to be original students 
of social conditions. Reliance may be placed upon the 
studies of sociologists. These men are supplying an 
abundance of literature presented in untechnical language, 
most helpful to teachers. The books referred to in this 
chapter, and indeed other books of this type, should be 
more generally read by school administrators and school 
teachers. If our public schools are to serve the community 
as well as the individual, they must be wisely directed upon 
the basis of intelligent interpretation of social conditions. 
Interpretation of social conditions is the responsibility of the 
sociologist. Adjustment of school work to his findings is the 
responsibility of the educator. The social problems referred 
to in this chapter are taken directly from the writings of 
prominent sociologists. For the suggested educational ap- 
plication the author is himself responsible. 



88 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

CHANGES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

On the basis of some acquaintance with present social 
problems, a better perspective is secured by taking note of 
significant changes that have taken place in social life. A 
brief statement of some of these changes seems advisable 
here, especially for the sake of certain educational implica- 
tions involved. 

Early society: the individual independent. School men 
are not now meeting for the first time real social problems. 
Social problems are coincident with human society. 

In the first chapter of his book, Studies in the Evolution of 
Industrial Society, Ely gives an interpretation of the develop- 
ment of society which deserves the thoughtful consideration of 
one who wishes to study educational problems in relation to 
social conditions. Here is pointed out in a striking way the 
contrast between the relation of individuals to a simple society 
and the relation of individuals to a very complex society. 
" Early society is little more than a mere mass of men, com- 
posed of individuals with like occupations, like habits, like 
beliefs. In a few individuals we see all. . . . Of course, 
even the rudest society that we know is not entirely homo- 
geneous . . . and yet, on the whole, one man lives about 
the same life as does every other man." ^ " The New 
Zealander ... is acquainted with every department of 
knowledge common to his race : he can build his house, 
can make his canoe, his nets, his hooks, his lines ; he can 
manufacture snares to suit every bird, and form his traps ; 
he can fabricate his garments, and every tool and implement 
required. It is not a single individual, or a few only, who 
are adepts in these various arts, but all." ^ An individual is 

^ Ely, R. T., Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, pages 7-8. 
^ Quoted by Ely, R. T., Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, 
page 8. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 89 

of little importance in such society. Let one be removed 
and the others are little affected. One contributes nothing 
to the group ; each one is independent, so far as his own wel- 
fare is concerned. 

Later society : the individual dependent. The evolution 
of society, from that early simple grouping of people to the 
present complex grouping, has been essentially a change 
in the relation of individuals to the group with which they 
associate. As each individual increased his contribution to 
the welfare of the group and at the same time balanced his 
personal accounts by becoming the more dependent upon 
that group, society developed. Increase in one's contribu- 
tion to the group and increase in one's dependence upon 
others in the group are accompaniments of specialization. 
Modern society is highly specialized; each individual is 
greatly dependent ; he is correspondingly responsible for 
serving society. Note the very disastrous consequences to 
a large number of men and women in a great variety of 
occupations when one small class of individuals — for 
example, those who work in coal mines — choose to go on 
strike. The more complex society becomes, the more im- 
portant to society does each individual become. 

Recognizing this complex social order, it may seem impos- 
sible that any school can be conducted now in which all 
pupils are taught as one, as though the modern interde- 
pendence were not known. But exactly that is possible, and 
it is against just such current practice that progressive 
school men are struggling. Change in school work will take 
place slowly until school officials and school communities 
become better informed as to the nature of this social change 
and the educational significance of this interdependence of 
individuals. The responsibility for the first rests with 
students of sociology ; for the second with students of 
education. 



90' CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

STAGES OF SOCIETY AND EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS 

Life simple : little education needed. For the purpose 
of noting further educational implications, it is well to look 
somewhat more closely at some of the social changes that 
have been taking place. 

The development of social organization has been by no 
means one of simple chronological advancement. For the 
sake of more clearly describing this advancement, writers 
have pointed out " stages " in the evolution of society. 
These stages differ somewhat with different writers. Ely ^ 
presents five such stages : (1) hunting and fishing; (2) pas- 
toral; (3) agricultural; (4) handicraft; (5) industrial. De- 
scriptions of these stages by various writers might suggest 
that there is a definite order of development. On the 
contrary, Carver points out that such is not always the case. 
" In different times and places there have probably been 
savages who never depended upon the hunting of animals 
and the catching of fish for their food supply, subsisting 
rather upon fruits, nuts, and edible roots. . . . Again, it 
has been too frequently assumed that the second stage is 
always the pastoral stage. . . . On the contrary, it is 
certain that, in some cases at least, the tilling of the soil 
followed immediately after the hunting stage even where men 
had lived mainly by hunting and fishing. . . ." ^ Carver 
further calls attention to other irregular changes. In some 
cases, such as in that of the ancient Phoenicians, commerce 
developed directly out of fishing. The American Indians 
have been regarded as formerly agriculturists and later 
hunters by reason of the abundance of game. 

In the hunting and fishing stage people were so directly 
dependent on what nature supplied that adjustment called 

^ Ely, R. T., Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, pages 25-73. 
^ Carver, T. N., Principles of Rural Economics, page 29. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 91 

for no great struggle. Not much progress was made in 
inducing nature to supply more liberally. With life so simple 
and without ambition to advance the manner of their living, 
their preparation for complete living was sufficiently acquired 
through the simple acts of hunting and fishing. 

In the pastoral stage domesticated animals were used. 
People roved from place to place as they could find pasture 
for their cattle. " Warlike habits continue. . . . There is 
no special development of the arts nor of slavery, for these 
are especially characteristic of a relatively peaceful exis- 
tence." ^ As in the hunting and fishing stage of social 
progress, so here education for social efficiency has practically 
no significance. 

Social interdependence : education becomes a problem. 
In the agricultural stage there was a marked change in social 
relationships. People were somewhat settled in communities 
and some interdependence was experienced. However, 
in the main, " Each group raised and made the things which it 
needed. The wants of the people were simple, and food, 
clothing, and fuel could all be obtained at home." ^ In a 
phase of life so simple, social efficiency was readily acquired 
by merely following the example of elders in the group. 
Instruction in any definite form was not needed. And 
educators might well recognize that people may be found 
today in this agricultural stage who have no ambition to 
better their condition. Not until such ambition is aroused 
by real contact with other groups more favorably situated 
by reason of higher forms of social and industrial relationships 
can any form of school work function in the advancement 
of social efficiency. 

In the handicraft stage there was a very decided increase 
in the amount of interdependence. Almost all houses were 

1 Ely, R. T., Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, page 43. 

2 Ibid., page 50. 



92 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

inhabited by men who were both cultivators and artisans; 
one was a tanner, another a shoemaker, another sold goods, 
but all were farmers. The status of an individual was some- 
what determined by the quality and quantity of his service 
to others and the kind of aid he asked of others. Competi- 
tion appeared. Problems of social relationship were more 
in evidence. "... the household was practically the center 
in which were carried on, or about which were clustered, 
all the typical forms of industrial occupation. . . . prac- 
tically every member of the household had his own share 
in the work. ... It was a matter of immediate and personal 
concern, even to the point of actual participation." ^ Dewey 
points out certain factors of discipline and character-building 
in this phase of life : habits of order and industry, the sense 
of responsibility and obligation to do something to contribute 
to the common weal. 

Within this stage schools existed. Instruction in the 
Three R's and some allied subjects was given. Yet social 
efficiency in this household and neighborhood system was 
acquired largely — almost exclusively — through the in- 
dividual's participation in the practical activities of the 
home and neighborhood. In this handicraft stage social 
problems were not yet complicated, but the individual's 
adjustment was made through conscious attention to aifairs 
actually taking place in the life of the family and community. 

Social life complex: educational problem complex. In 
the industrial stage people find themselves in a great whirl 
of complicated social situations. Men are studying and 
planning. Their inventions bring about great changes in 
the nature of work. The household system, in which each 
individual was acquainted with, if not a participant in, 
every phase of work, has given way to the factory system, 
in which the individual is responsible for only one small part. 
* Dewey, J., School and Society (1915 edition), pages 6, 7. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 93 

His work is very limited. He is a specialist. The more 
specialized the work of the individual, the greater is the 
interdependence among individuals. The greater this inter- 
dependence, the more complicated become the social situa- 
tions. This In turn increases almost immeasurably the 
significance of social efficiency and the task of educating 
the youth to meet this increasingly complicated situation. 

Little observation and thought are needed to convince 
one that present social and industrial life teems with problems 
for sociologist and educator. Any attempt to " round up " 
these problems would be discouraging were they not so 
interesting. A mere acquaintance with a few of these has 
suggested to the author the basis for the elementary curricu- 
lum presented in this book and briefly outlined in Chapter 
Seventeen. No attempt is made here to list any considerable 
number of present-day social problems, or, indeed, to give a 
general view of an organization of such problems. Such a 
list would be too long and any organization would smack too 
much of the glittering generalities of social efficiency ob- 
jected to above. 

CURRENT SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 

In the remaining part of this chapter an attempt is made 
to call the attention of school men to types of social problems 
which should affect to a very considerable extent the work 
of the schools. In pointing out these problems some indica- 
tion will also be given of their educational significance — 
how they make strong demands for a change from the worn- 
out traditional curriculum to one in tune with strictly modern 
life. 1 

Specialization and mental attitude. Specialization in 
industry is one of the consequences of invention. Unques- 
tionably such specialization demands that workmen con- 
centrate attention and effort in the interests of economy 



94 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

and efficiency in the industry. There is serious danger 
that this be at the expense of the individual as a citizen. 
Florence Kelley points out the baneful effects upon boys and 
gray-haired men whose specialized work is the looking for 
dents in tin cans as they pass, one of the last stages in the 
factory. " This work called for no quality of mind, but 
sustained attention to a horrible monotony. . . . That 
can-watcher is a type of millions of men who, in an infinite 
variety of ways, are reduced to some one form of attention. 
Often that is the sole demand upon one, his other powers 
atrophy by disuse. But the permanent tendency of industry 
is to install more automatic machines, to require more 
tenders, perhaps one for one machine, perhaps one for six, 
eight or twenty. And their inevitable tendency is to make 
the machine tender automatic like themselves. . . . Had 
the educated men of my generation been trained in youth 
to insight and vision, to discern the industrial process of 
stupefying and, on the other hand, the demand of expanding 
democracy for intelligence in all the citizens, how different 
must have been their recent attitude toward the movement 
for a shorter working day, for one day's rest in seven, for the 
abolition of night work in every possible case ! " ^ 

Florence Kelley here presents the point of view of social 
efficiency in contrast to machine efficiency. Machine 
efficiency is not to be lessened, nor are school men to attempt 
to relieve, directly, the monotonous service of the boy or 
the man who looks for dents in tin cans. On the other hand, 
schools are in danger of training boys for just that character 
of work. The traditional curriculum, as carried out in 
large systems of crowded schoolrooms and in one-room 
country schools of few pupils, gives boys and girls exercises 
similar to that of looking for dents in tin cans. One illus- 
tration is striking, but is quite typical. 

^ Kelley, Florence, Modern Industry, pages 102-105. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 95 

Among the pupils of the school, most of whom, as might be expected, 
are much over-age in comparison with the work of the curriculum with which 
they are engaged, was observed a boy with the physical proportions of a 
good-sized man. 

"How old is this boy?" we asked. 

"He is seventeen," replied the head teacher. 

"How long has he been here, and what is he studying now?" 

"He has been here a year and a half; he is now doing fifth-grade 
work." 

"How long will he probably continue in school?" 

"Three years or more." 

"Will he be required to pursue the same course that all pupils now in 
the fifth grade must pursue, technical grammar and all ? " 

"Yes, it is our aim to make him like normal children." 

" But what good will so many years' study of purely technical grammar 
do this young man who, presumably, must soon try to earn his own living 
in some way?" 

"Why, technical grammar broadens the mind !" replied the head of the 
school, obviously somewhat surprised at the question. 

Think of it ! Three or more years' study of technical grammar to 
" broaden the mind " of a youth now in grade five, struggling with part twenty- 
six of the rigid educational mechanism, but already old enough either to 
be through with his secondary education or to be out of school bearing a 
man's part in the world's work ! What will this unfortunate young man be 
able to do at twenty-one, when he goes out from this child's school, his sole 
trained equipment a mind "broadened" by several years' study of technical 
grammar? . . . 

The treatment of this boy — young man — makes to stand out clearly, 
but does not exaggerate in the least, the spirit and the thoughtless routine 
that dominates the elementary schools. The only recognition accorded 
the individualities of pupils, no matter how much they differ through peculiar 
strength, weakness or defect, is the recognition that the school mechanism 
compels ; their treatment varies only in so far as it is necessary to vary it 
temporarily that every one may learn exactly the same things — that every 
one else must learn. All must be made just as nearly alike as possible. To 
this mechanical end every phase of the elementary curriculum and its ad- 
ministration seems to be adjusted — and very nicely and thoughtfully ad- 
justed. ^ 

^ Report of the Survey of the Public School System of Portland, pages 
102-103. 



96 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Many tests and uniform standards now so popular among 
school men and school teachers — but not among school 
pupils — have a similar effect. 

Florence Kelley has indicated one educational problem, 
viz., the education of the rising generation so that as adults 
they will have that insight into these social situations and 
that sympathy with the employees which will, through the 
ballot, forbid long, strenuous hours of monotonous and 
degrading woxk. But something more fundamental is needed 
than influence through the ballot. The rising generation 
must be educated, not merely to forbid that which is socially 
unwholesome, but, on the positive side, to develop in the 
rank and file of laboring people that habit of mind which 
leads them to do more thinking while they work and to find 
a more helpful enjoyment while they are at leisure. Highly 
specialized work is inevitable, from the lowest to the highest 
stages. Certain routine is quite essential. Long hours 
will probably be shortened or relief provided through change 
of work. But mental attitude is all-important in social 
control among men at work and in leisure. This mental 
attitude may be acquired only by prolonged attention from 
youth up to those activities and interests which constitute 
the life of people. Such a program of study is advocated 
in this volume and outlined in Chapter Seventeen. 

Mechanical efficiency and perspective. Closely allied 
with the specialization in industry just noted is the social 
situation in which the employee is so confined to his own 
work that he knows nothing of what it is all about. This 
may contribute to mechanical efficiency.^ It is unquestion- 
ably injurious to social efficiency. Social disturbances are 
very largely due to a lack of perspective. Theft is com- 

^ Well worth reading in this connection is Edmond Holmes' discussion of 
"What is, or The Path of Mechanical Obedience" in his book entitled What 
Is and What Might Be. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 97 

mitted without thought of the significance of ownership in 
community life. Puffer well illustrates this in his report 
of the boy who was committed to the State Reform School 
for stealing. He acquired the needed viewpoint only when 
his own prize melon was stolen from him.^ " If a working 
man is to have a conception of his value at all, he must see 
industry in its unity and entirety ; he must have a concep- 
tion that will include not only himself and his immediate 
family and community, but the industrial organization as a 
whole. . . . Feeding a machine with a material of which 
he has no knowledge, producing a product, totally unrelated 
to the rest of his life, without in the least knowing what 
becomes of it, or its connection with the community, is, of 
course, unquestionably deadening to his intellectual and 
moral life." ^ On the basis of her rich experience in directing 
the work at Hull House in Chicago, Miss Addams points 
out that workmen, when free to choose, seek the larger view- 
point of their own work, a natural " rebound from the 
specialization of labor to which the workingman is subjected." 
This trait is undoubtedly commendable, though it is to be 
feared this " rebound " carries the laborer far beyond his 
understanding. 

Our traditional curriculum is the goal of this extreme re- 
bound. A broad viewpoint (of a certain type) of arithmetic 
is presented, but there is good evidence that the glittering 
generalities are far beyond the comprehension and apprecia- 
tion of boys and girls of school age. The same may be said 
of geography, language, and the like. But in these school 
subjects material is presented so foreign to real activities in 
life that no perspective for any kind of employment is given. 
When these pupils finish school and enter various employ- 
ments, especially of a specialized character, they remember 

^ Puffer, J. A., The Boy and His Gang, pages 99-101. 

^ Addams, J., Democracy and Social Ethics, pages 213-214. 



98 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

something of the Three R's, but they now experience a 
narrow phase of work with no relation to those school sub- 
jects — and more, as Miss Addams has pointed out, without 
seeing a relation of their own work to the rest of the industry. 
Employers and even the wage-earners themselves have used 
various means of educating workmen. But even at their 
best such methods are tardy, and the mental attitude of 
employees, thinking of their work and of the industry of 
which their work is only a small part, cannot be so readily 
or assuredly acquired as at a younger age. Observing, 
thinking, studying in terms of life activities should character- 
ize the attitude of mind from childhood up. To this end the 
public school curriculum pursued by the masses of young 
people, most of whom will soon be employed in industrial 
or commercial work, should relate directly to the more usual 
occupations and activities of people.^ 

Big business and rural education. Big business, as one of 
the chief characteristics of modern industry, is having a 
very noticeable effect on the migration of country people 
into the city. Large cities are becoming larger by leaps 
and bounds; country districts are increasing only by small 
percentages. Many sections show even a positive decrease. 
" Thus, between 1900 and 1910, while every state in the 
union increased its urban population from 10 to 250 per 
cent, all the more populous states of the country increased 
their rural population less than 10 per cent, and six states, 
including four great agricultural states in the Central 
West, showed an absolute decrease in their rural popu- 
lation." ^ This marked shifting of the population has an 
important influence upon social situations in both city 
and country. The country problem may be selected here 
quite arbitrarily. 

^ This topic will be more fully discussed in Chapter Nine. 

* EUwood, C. A., Sociology and Modern Social Problems, page 265. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 99 

Recent studies in country life — and there are many of 
these — seem quite in agreement that one of the great 
problems is that of maintaining people of high, or at least 
average, quality upon the farms. But the very writers who 
point out this problem are most optimistic as to the results. 
Some even go so far as to claim that " the sifting of the 
country community in recent years has on the whole im- 
proved it." ^ Carver views this problem as one which de- 
mands serious effort, though without interference with an 
optimistic attitude. " In order that young men and women 
of talent and capacity may be induced to remain on the 
farms, rural life must be made attractive to them. Farm life 
cannot be attractive to such men and women unless it offers 
opportunities for a liberal material income, for agreeable 
social life, and for intellectual and aesthetic enjoyment." ^ 
In many sections of the country the adult rural community 
has made vigorous effort to meet this problem by various' 
organizations. The Grange is probably the most extensive 
and best known. Farmers' institutes are common. The 
good work of such organizations is not to be questioned 
if the young people are reached early enough — before they 
have yielded to the temptation to go to the city. In the 
beautiful farming district of Randolph Township, Ohio, a 
Farmers Club has been in existence for fifty years, seldom 
failing to meet once each month. But it has failed to reach 
the young people, and the population of that rural township 
has been continually diminishing. Rural sports and recrea- 
tion are too generally organized by adults, and, as such, too 
frequently fail to appeal until it is too late. Recreations 
arranged by the young people themselves are too generally 
a relief from the drudgery of farm work and not a real part 
in their lives, as vital as work itself. The New England farm 

^ Wilson, W. H., The Evolution of the Country Community, page 102. 
* Carver, T. N., Principles of Rural Economics, page 339. 



100 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

boy is promised permission to " play ball after he has done 
up the chores." ^ 

Such remedial measures do not reach the root of the matter. 
The mental attitude of boys and girls has not been shaped 
sufficiently early. Writers on the social phases of rural 
life advisedly speak only in general terms of what the school 
should do .2 Those who are more concerned in educational 
problems see in the teaching of agriculture and manual arts 
a large part of the solution.^ The traditional curriculum 
with much of its empty formalism, would continue as central 
in the school. But again, this does not seem to reach the 
root of the matter. And further, all rural advocates seem 
to try to retain the country boy and girl, but they make no 
suggestion by way of inducing the youth of the city to migrate 
to the country. Inbreeding is injurious to life, and the rural 
community has seemingly suffered. Exchange of life is 
highly desirable. Rural social life would probably profit 
as much by the infusion of urban customs as city industry 
profits by the incoming of vigorous, capable, and enterprising 
country youth. But this exchange is not to be made by 
teaching all country children and some city children the 
attractions of country life, assuming that the city will attract 
its share without special instruction. The Three R's and 
allied subjects now in the traditional curriculum present 
the glittering generalities of life in both city and country 
without differentiating them. A new form of curriculum is 
needed that will present in striking detail the attractions 
and the difficulties of a great range of industrial and social 
activities, both urban and rural. These studies should be 
presented alike — or nearly so — to city and country children. 
As a result of such a system of instruction, country youth 

^ Warner, C. D., Being a Boy, page 12. 
2 See Carver, Butterfield, Wilson. 
» See Cubberley, Kern, Davenport. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 101 

will continue in rural life and city youth will migrate to the 
country to the extent that rural opportunities for work and 
for leisure appeal more strongly than urban opportunities. 
The economic law of supply and demand will have much in- 
fluence. But of no less influence will be the social law of in- 
dividual and community relationship. The city school, the 
country school, and rural life advocates must attack this rural 
problem in a more fundamental way than by teaching agri- 
culture as an appendage to the formal Three R's and thus 
persuading many boys against their wish to remain on farms, 
or by making rural life tolerable through the use of plays 
and festivals designed for that purpose. From childhood 
up, children must develop an attitude of mind, some inclined 
to rural life, some to urban life. This attitude is developed 
through gaining an insight into a wide range of industrial 
employments and social activities, both rural and urban.^ 

Moral standards and education for social service. Moral 
standards for the guidance of both individuals and groups of 
people have never presented so conspicuous a social problem 
as at present. Gigantic industries, powerful corporations, 
and complicated governmental systems have occasioned 
the lowering of moral standards. Material gain is largely 
the measure of success in modern industry, and the individual 
loses nearly all sense of personal responsibility in a crowd. 
The prominence of the young malefactor ^ and the adult 
criminal is the result of the dominance of material gain and 
egoistic interests. " The very forces which undermined 
Roman civilization, viz., commercialism, individualism, 
materialistic standards of life, militarism, a low estimate of 
marriage and the family agnosticism in religion and in ethics, 
seem to be the things which are now prominent, if not domi- 

^ For further discussion of this notion see Chapter Thirteen. 

2 Consult such books as Travis, T., The Young Malefactor; Eliot, T. D., 
The Juvenile Court and the Community ; Bowen, L., Safeguards for City 
Youth at Work and at Play. 



102 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

nant, in western civilization." ^ Much is being done on the 
part of pubhc officials and private enterprises to safeguard 
the youth, to suppress vice, to punish the criminal; but 
all such means come too late to construct effectively a dispo- 
sition in individuals to live together harmoniously. In his 
discussion of The Social Problem, Ellwood does not dis- 
countenance the commonplace methods of attempting to 
prevent social evils and maintain social standards, but he 
insists that the solution must be found in a more fundamental 
philosophy of life. Social service must be the aim of business 
corporations as well as individuals. In right habits of life 
in relation to the lives of others is found the essential correc- 
tive of loose moral standards due to the worship of material 
gain and egoistic advancement. 

" So our hope of solving the social problem must be not 
through revolution, external machinery, or one-sided reforms 
but through the education of the young, the transformation 
of the ' subjective environment ' of ideals and values in 
society, and the development of a well-balanced program 
of social progress. The development of a fuller social intelli- 
gence and social character in the individual is the heart of 
our problem. Practically it becomes, therefore, largely the 
problem of social leadership and social education. Social 
machinery and even social ' mutations ' may assist, but they 
are powerless without the inner, spiritual transformation of 
our social life, since that life consists in the mental attitudes 
which individuals maintain toward one another." ^ 

Here again is emphasized the significance of " mental 
attitude " in all individuals making up society. The sociol- 
ogist leaves to the student of education the responsibility 
of suggesting the details of the " social education " advocated 
by him. With this social problem in mind, the school man 

1 Ellwood, C. A.,' The Social Problem, page 4. 
^Ibid., pages 231-232. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 103 

is forced to question to what extent the traditional arithmetic 
contributes to that mental attitude of social service, on the 
part of large business concerns as well as on the part of 
individuals. The same question must be raised relative 
to all the other subjects usually found in our public schools. 
There is scarcely a place in the whole range of our public 
school curriculum where even the theory of social service 
is presented. This might at times be found in elementary 
civics or in moral lessons, but even then the instruction is 
so incidental and so indefinite in nature that little if any 
lasting effect is made upon the mental attitude of the youth. 
Mental attitude toward social service, as may be exhibited 
in various phases of industrial and social life, can be de- 
veloped only by direct observation and study of men engaged 
in such activities. Young people in the schools must be 
enabled to study the work of the blacksmith, the banker, the 
manufacturer, the commercial traveler, the government 
officials, and the relation of these men tp the social life of 
the community in which they work. In the public schools 
it has been too long assumed that somehow, sometime, some- 
where, pupils, carefully trained to read, write, and cipher 
in accordance with standards established for those school 
exercises, will adapt themselves to the complicated social 
conditions in which they later find themselves. 

Other social problems. Only a few of the almost innumer- 
able social problems have been presented here, briefly. 
But these are sufficient to suggest the type of problems that 
leaders in public school work should study, and the signif- 
icance such problems should have in relation to the curricu- 
lum in our public schools. A few other such problems may 
be merely named. 

1. The disintegration of the home and family due to the 
necessity of various members contributing to the support.^ 
^ Kelley, Florence, Modern Industry, pages 3-37. 



104 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The schools have a large opportunity to contribute very 
considerably to the amelioration of this situation. 

2. The proper spending of leisure time.^ The schools 
have as yet contributed practically nothing to this serious 
situation, but just here is one of the very greatest of oppor- 
tunities in influencing the social behavior of youth and adult. 

3. The market price of intelligent interest of workmen, 
and the cooperative association of employees in industry .^ 
Our public schools, in content of work and especially in 
method of management, are contributing scarcely anything 
to the development of an attitude of mind in anticipation of 
such situations. 

4. Simple means of village improvement.^ How very 
little the school contributes to the improvement of its own 
local environment ! 

5. Religious life.'* Here is a delicate situation to be ap- 
proached by the American public schools. But there is a 
rich opportunity to develop an attitude of open-mindedness 
that would contribute much to a more wholesome and helpful 
religious attitude in community life. 

SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 

It is needless to suggest here more of these social situations 
and the educational problems involved. It is important 
to urge the significance of such problems as determinants of 
the public school curriculum and public school management. 
Only by a careful study of such definite problems can school 
administrators and school teachers contribute much to 
making the public school function in social eflSciency. 
Those who advocate social eflSciency must have in mind 

^ See discussion of this in Chapter Twelve and note references there given. 

^ See Addams, J., Newer Ideals of Peace, pages 151-179. 

' See Farwell, P. T., Village Improvement. 

■* See Wilson, W. H., The Evolution of the Country Community. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 105 

social service in specific situations. A general theory of 
social efficiency effects nothing. 

Ell wood rightly says : " The truth is that we have not yet 
become seriously interested in the social problem. We 
have been so interested in the conquest of nature and in 
individual achievement, that the problems of human relation- 
ship have not greatly concerned us ; . . . " ^ But the 
student of social and industrial life cannot but be convinced 
that, at least for the great majority of people, the important 
problem for each individual is : How can I conduct my own 
vocational and avocational affairs so that they will be in the 
greatest harmony with the vocational and avocational 
affairs of other people.? Society rightly demands of the 
schools a generous contribution. She demands that the 
schools serve pupils and community in a very direct, practical 
way. School officials and school teachers are asked to face 
social conditions as they are. They are asked so to conduct 
the school work as to contribute very directly to practical life. 
And by practical life is meant all the profitable and enjoyable 
acts that make up a wholesome living. The schools can 
comply with this demand only by helping the rising genera- 
tion to observe and study, in the concrete, a great variety 
of industrial activities and human relationships that make 
up our social life. Such a program is advocated in this 
book and outlined in Chapter Seventeen. 

And the school as a social institution in the service of the 
home and community is most natural. In Chapter Two 
was presented the theory of general discipline as a principle 
underlying the traditional curriculum. It was pointed out 
that that theory has been supplanted by the theory of special 
powers. When applied to the social problems presented 
in this chapter, it must be concluded that the traditional 
subjects function in these social situations only to the extent 
1 EUwood, C. A., The Social Problem, page 221. 



106 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

that reading, writing, arithmetic " carry over " into farming, 
blacksmithing, " spotting " dents in tin cans, maintaining 
integrity in oil-refining business, etc., etc. Psychological 
studies resulting in favor of the development of special 
powers are in strong support of the position taken in this 
chapter ; viz., the schools are responsible for equipping boys 
and girls for the social situations in which they are now living, 
and for preparing them for the social emergencies of later life, 
by developing in them a socialized mental attitude through 
direct observation and study of a great variety of activities 
and situations which make up the social life of people. 

Supplementary Readings 

Addams, Jane. Democracy and Social Ethics, pages 137-220. 

Newer Ideals of Peace, pages 124-208. 

The Spirit of Youth and the City Street, pages 3-21, 107-135. 

BuTTERFiELD, K. L. Chapters in Rural Progress, pages 11-65, 162-203. 
Carlton, F. T. Education and Industrial Evolution, pages 3-18, 45-72, 

140-149. 
Carver, T. N. Principles of Rural Economics, pages i9-116, 33i-38i. 
CuBBERLET, E. P. Rural Life and Education, pages 6-176. 

Changing Conceptions in Education. 

Dean, A. D. The Worker and the State, pages 25-60, 287-317. 

Dewey, J. School and Society (1915 edition), pages 3-28. 

Ellwood, C. a. The Social Problem, pages 1-47, 220-249. 

Ely, R. T. Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, pages 3-99. 

Inglis, a. Principles of Secondary Education, pages 340-366. 

Kelley, Florence. Modern Industry, pages 3-138. 

Kern, O. J. Among Country Schools, pages 1-33, 342-366. 

Mangold, G. B. Child Problems, pages 15-91. 

Wilson, W. H. The Evolution of the Country Community, pages 91-216. 

General References 

BowEN, Louise. Safeguards for City Youth. 
Carney, Mabel. Country Life and the Country School. 
Cubberley, E. p. The Improvement of Rural Schools. 
Davenport, E. Education for Efficiency. 



SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THE CURRICULUM 107 

Dewey, J. Moral Principles in Education. 
Eliot, T. D. The Juvenile Court and the Community. 
Ellwood, C. a. Sociology and Modern Social Problems. 
Farwell, p. T. Village Improvement. 
George, W. R. The Junior Republic. 
Henderson, C. R. Citizens in Industry. 
■ Holmes, E. What Is and What Might Be. 
Spaego, J. The Bitter Cry of the Children. 
Travis, T. The Young Malefactor. 
ZuEBLiN, C. American Municipal Progress. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Seven 

School changes take place the more readily where the purposes are 

less strongly allied to tradition. 
Some private schools, in England, Germany, and the United States, 
present striking tendencies to adapt their work to modern social 
conditions. 
Professional training schools are studying this problem. 
Public schools are responding to the new demands. 

Universities are encouraging secondary schools through more 

liberal entrance requirements and extension service. 
Secondary schools are providing for industrial education. 
Elementary schools are giving more attention to the study of 
the activities of the community. 
Miscellaneous educational agencies contribute to the tendency to 
study contemporary life. 

Textbooks contain more of the "practical." 
Publications on practical subjects are increasing. 
Motion pictures portray life activities. 
Junior civic leagues connect school and town. 
The wider use of the school plant is demanded. 
Legislative enactments, both national and state, encourage the 
study of modern life. 
School practice follows social aims. 



108 



CHAPTER SEVEN 
Some Educational Changes 

conditions for change 

Society is making more urgent her demand that educa- 
tional agencies contribute more directly to practical life. 
The question may now be asked : How are the schools and 
other educational institutions responding to this demand? 
If there were no response, society might not be justified in 
asking such a contribution from the schools. Or, perhaps, 
the schools must be judged incapable of compliance with 
such a demand, and for that reason they must continue in 
the traditional course. Neither of these possibilities exists. 
Society is wholly justified in calling upon any of her social 
institutions — schools, churches, prisons, charity organiza- 
tions, and the like — to serve people in a very practical 
way. Further, schools are by no means incapable of com- 
pliance. Many evidences of this fact may be found; a 
number of these are presented in this chapter. 

That type of school most weighted down by traditions 
and forms will be most tardy in response. That type of 
school most free from traditions and forms will, probably, 
be the first to respond. 

Large public schools belong to the first class. Their 
work has been in process of development for years and even 
centuries. Earlier practices tend to continue. With chang- 
ing conditions in social life, purposes in school work change. 
But school practices follow very tardily and thus purposes 
and practices are commonly without close relation. Func- 
tionless practice means empty form. All this is exaggerated 
in large school systems. Meeting new demands, where 
change is involved, is also considerably influenced by the 
attitude of the school community. Large school communi- 

109 



110 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

ties are generally more conservative than small districts. 
Extensive changes in large city systems cannot be made 
readily. Such are the explanations given for much of the 
failure of public schools to promptly meet the practical 
needs of contemporary life. 

On the other hand, private schools have a decided ad- 
vantage at the very point where public schools are handi- 
capped. These schools are usually founded for specific 
purposes. They are less hampered by tradition. To be 
free from the traditional practices of public schools is 
frequently the occasion for the opening of the private 
school. The headmaster of the Abbotsholme School 
pointedly remarks that it is impossible to realize certain 
ideals in present day life through any system which has a 
more tender regard for tradition than for the boy. Then, 
too, private schools are quite limited in the number of 
pupils enrolled and more selective in the character of those 
enrolled. 

Higher educational institutions, such as universities, pro- 
fessional schools, and educational agencies connected with 
industrial and social establishments, will be recognized as 
having a very considerable influence in shaping educational 
training to industrial and social needs. This is due in one 
case to strong educational leadership, and in the other to 
the strong leadership of business men. 

The purpose of this chapter is to point out evidences of 
what seem to be tendencies to modify the curriculum in 
compliance with the most recent changes in social life. The 
curriculum outlined and advocated in this volume may seem 
at first quite radical. But when present-day tendencies are 
noted, the proposed plan of school work is seen to be only 
in line with such tendencies, though admittedly quite free 
from traditional practice. Evidences of these tendencies 
are selected from three groups of institutions : private 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 111 

schools; public schools, including normal schools and uni- 
versities ; and miscellaneous educational agencies. 

PRIVATE SCHOOLS 

Sargent ^ briefly describes approximately one thousand 
private schools in the United States and Canada. A large 
number of these are strictly preparatory schools. Their 
work is thus largely determined by the entrance requirements 
of the colleges with which they are professionally affiliated. 
Many of these private schools are for the children of well- 
to-do parents, who pay high tuition rather than have their 
children in public schools. In such schools there is no dis- 
tinctively professional purpose. It would be practically 
impossible to classify these thousand schools and then draw 
any reliable conclusion as to their tendency to respond to 
recent social changes. It is sufficient for this discussion to 
note certain schools that have attracted national or even 
international attention. These may be accepted as indicat- 
ing the tendency in progressive private schools. ^ 

In England certain " home " schools clearly indicate a 
decided effort among progressive school men to adapt school 
work to life needs. Abbotsholme School, Ingleholme School, 
and Bedales School are representative of such schools. The 
Central Schools, referred to later under Public Elementary 
Schools, indicate a similar practical tendency. 

In Germany the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus in Berlin, and 
an experimental school in Munich organized by an educa- 
tional leader. Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner, represented " learn- 
ing, certainly, but living primarily." 

In the United States. Prominent among the progressive 
private schools in the United States are the Ethical Culture 

^ Sargent, P. E., Handbook of American Private Schools. 
* Many other private schook might well be included among those here 
referred to. 



112 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

School of New York City and the Francis W. Parker School 
of Chicago. These schools aim at certain aspects of real 
life with more directness and positiveness than is found in 
the rank and file of our public schools. The course of study 
in the Ethical Culture School is " broad in its scope in order 
to embrace the varied interests of modern life." Here 
Froebel's principle, " Come, now, let us live with our chil- 
dren," is clearly in evidence, in the emphasis placed upon 
the close relation of the school to the normal activities of 
the pupils. True, this school centers its attention on ethical 
training. This is not a narrow aim. The life activities of 
the child are more definitely affected than through a curric- 
ulum of the general and traditional stamp. 

The Francis W. Parker School aims very definitely at the 
development of that character in the pupil which will enable 
him to cooperate more eflaciently in home and conununity 
life. Special effort is made to adapt the studies to experi- 
ence. " The dynamic value of interest in work is secured 
by presenting to the pupil subjects for study in some relation 
to his own life and experience. He is not asked to consider 
isolated mathematical abstractions, but taught to measure 
and compare actual dimensions and quantities. He is 
not asked to learn to spell and to read by committing to 
memory combinations of letters and words which have for 
him no essential meaning, but he masters the technic of 
language through its constant use in the study and expres- 
sion of thoughts within the range of his experience. And 
since his experience includes his life in school as well as 
his life out of school, by his teacher's help and guidance he 
gradually comes to understand the practical bearings of all 
the elementary forms of knowledge." ^ Both in the or- 
ganization of the course of study and in the spirit of work 
within the school the centering of the work about the activi- 
* School Circular for 1914-1915, page 5. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 113 

ties of the school and the larger community is marked. 
The " common branches " are found in the course of study, 
but throughout these there is striking evidence of attention 
to social and industrial activities. 

In San Diego, California, there is a second Francis W. 
Parker School. Here " special emphasis is laid on service 
to others in all lines of work and recreation, that the children 
may realize from the beginning the value of social service 
to the community." Real life experience is made the 
occasion for studies in formal subjects. " When the prob- 
lems are derived from the child's experience in play, con- 
struction and group work, arithmetic becomes real. The 
period of vigorous drill begins when the child realizes the 
need of eflSciency in computations." ^ 

The Fairhope School at Fairhope, Alabama, is a private 
school that is winning the attention of educators as a school 
which provides education as natural development.^ The 
underlying principle of this school, as pointed out by Pro- 
fessor Dewey, is Rousseau's central idea : " The child is 
best prepared for life as an adult by experiencing in child- 
hood what has meaning to him as a child ; and, further, the 
child has a right to enjoy his childhood." The conventional 
curriculum is quite set aside, as unsuited to the present 
needs of the pupils. Direct study of the natural environ- 
ment of the children is substituted. The increased motive 
for industrious application on the part of the pupils and 
more effective learning as the inevitable by-product of such 
activity can hardly be questioned. 

A number of other private schools have been instituted 
for the specific purpose of more directly helping boys and 
girls to adjust themselves to the everyday activities in 

1 School Circular, 1914-1915. 

^ For a description of this school see Dewey's Schools of Tomorrow, pages 
17-40. 



114 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

which they are normally engaging than is provided in the 
traditional public school. The Shady Hill Country Day 
School ^ was established in 1912 by a group of parents who 
desired for their children better conditions than are offered 
by the ordinary day school. " They wished the studies to 
be connected so closely with the daily lives of the children 
that they would learn to apply themselves with a degree of 
voluntary concentration that is rarely attained where the 
push comes from the outside." The central principle of 
the school is education through real life : "... the closer 
the learning process comes to being a part of immediate 
daily life, the more permanent is the value of the resulting 
education." The work of this school is indorsed by some of 
the leading educators of the country. Arthur D. Dean, 
formerly chief of the Division of Trade Schools, Department 
of Education for New York, and now professor at Teachers 
College, contributed to the organization of this school and 
enthusiastically said, " and I am glad of it." At Lincoln- 
dale, New York, there is an agricultural school where the 
boy in his relation to real home and community life is made 
paramount. Here again, learning is made a by-product of 
living. In his chapter on " Play," Professor Dewey ^ refers 
to a number of schools, largely of kindergarten and lower 
grade type. Such schools are of the same class as those 
noted above, — they are striving to provide children with 
instruction in the activities common to their lives. 

Private schools of a more advanced character are not 
without a very considerable influence in directing the tend- 
ency of educational changes. Only a few need be noted 
here to indicate the importance attributed to this education 
of a practical character, e.g., Lawrence Scientific School, 
Sheffield Scientific School, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 

* This school is located near Germantown, Pennsylvania. 
2 Dewey, J., Schools of Tomorrow, pages 103-131. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 115 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, Pratt Institute, Tuskegee Institute. There 
are a great many others that belong to this class. Increas- 
ing recognition is being given to the value of the educational 
work done in such schools. In all of these the dominant 
purpose is the training of students to be efficient in their 
chosen lines of employment, but at the same time the de- 
velopment of those cultural traits that characterize the 
educated man and woman is not neglected. These schools 
contribute to the meeting of a real social and industrial need. 
They have also great influence upon the work in public 
schools. 

Apprenticeship schools, connected with factories and 
other industrial establishments, may rightly be noted in 
this group of private schools. Such schools are not new. 
They date back to the fourteenth century in England. 
This was the time when craftsmen in towns entered guilds 
established for mutual protection. Preparation for practical 
employment was deemed important. The apprenticeships 
connected with those early guilds were the forerunners of 
the apprenticeship schools of today. These early appren- 
ticeships under control of guilds and the later and present 
schools connected with private industrial corporations have 
had great influence upon the work of public schools. This 
effect is especially marked in Germany, where schools 
formerly maintained by merchants' associations, tailors' 
associations, tinsmiths' associations, etc., have been sup- 
planted by the continuation schools (noted later in this 
chapter under " Public Schools "). Reports of labor 
statistics ^ and industrial education ^ in the United States 
show a very positive demand for a kind of education not 
found in public schools. " This revival of apprenticeship 

^ Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (New York), 1908. 
* Report of the Commissioner of Labor (United States), 1910. 



116 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

is proceeding, roughly speaking, along four main lines. 
The first is where the industrial establishment and the school 
system cooperate in the education of the apprentice, practice 
in the shop being supplemented and illuminated by cognate 
school study of mathematics, drawing, physics, chemistry, 
etc. The second is where the employer provides such 
school exercises within his own establishment. The third 
is where the industrial establishment recommends or re- 
quires school study without making any provision, direct 
or through affiliation, for such supplementary training. The 
fourth is where the apprenticeship training is practically 
concentrated upon a single process or range of processes for 
the purpose of securing specialized skill." ^ Authorities 
in industrial education seem to see in this apprenticeship 
education an answer to a real call for definite practical educa- 
tion. " In view of this changing attitude of both employers 
and labor unions, and in view, moreover, of the success of 
such experiments as that at Cincinnati and those upon many 
of the railroads, it would seem safe to predict that appren- 
ticeship education will occupy an increasing place in voca- 
tional training, and that, in this development it will follow 
substantially two main lines, — one leading towards closer 
cooperation between public education and industrial estab- 
lishments; and the other tending towards an intensive 
practical, but nevertheless broad, apprenticeship training 
conducted within the establishments themselves, by men 
who are educators as well as experts in their special fields." ^ 
Thus it seems that schools in industrial establishments 
will either develop into a larger service or, as has been ex- 
perienced in Germany, influence the public schools to under- 
take this work. Either procedure is in answer to the call 

1 Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, article on " Apprenticeship and Edu- 
cation." This article contains a short but suggestive list of typical establish- 
ments maintaining schools. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 117 

oT the public for an education more specifically in terms of 
the activities of social and industrial life. 

By way of summary, it may be said that many private 
schools are instituted for the purpose of accomplishing a 
definite object not readily acquired in the traditional public 
school. That object is conspicuously the closer relation of 
school occupation to home and community life. While in 
most of these schools the " common branches " are studied, 
they are made subordinate to the problems of real life. The 
tendency seems to be to increase the relative emphasis upon 
the activities of out-of-school life. The experience of these 
private schools has unquestionably contributed much to 
educational thought and endeavor. 

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SCHOOLS 

Another group of schools having much influence upon 
educational practice is that group connected with schools 
of education in universities and in normal schools. Space 
forbids a presentation of evidence from theory and practice 
in many of these schools. Those interested are referred 
to the course of study at Speyer School published by Teachers 
College in 1913 ; to the principles underlying Professor 
Dewey's school in Chicago reported in his School and Society 
(first edition), pages 116-119; to a course of study arranged 
at Farmville (Virginia) Normal School by Dr. C. W. Stone; 
to studies planned at Hyannis (Massachusetts) Normal 
School, reported in Social- Industrial Education by W. A. 
Baldwin. These four references are representative of many 
others. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Universities. Much complaint ^ has been made, though 
rather quietly, that colleges and universities have influenced 

^ See Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1914, Vol. I, 
page 163. 



118 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

very considerably the courses of study in lower schools, 
restricting such schools to preparatory work rather than to 
serving the immediate needs of individuals and of the com- 
munity. But those who make such complaint are as ready 
as others to recognize that higher education tends strongly 
to provide for practical needs. The rapid development of 
university departments, generally called " schools," is evi- 
dence of this. The professional schools of law, medicine, 
and theology are of early foundation. Schools of agriculture, 
education, engineering, commerce, and journalism are 
comparatively recent. At a meeting of the trustees of 
Columbia University, January 3, 1916, a resolution was 
passed calling for the establishment of a school of business 
to be organized much as are schools of law, medicine, engineer- 
ing, etc. Such schools have arisen in response to the demand 
of the community for greater eflSciency in industry. The 
general college course, based upon the principle of " general 
discipline," does not suffice. There is an increasing demand 
that colleges give more attention to the vocational interests 
of the students. 

Two other phases of higher education in relation to the 
more practical demands of society may be here noted. 

College admission requirements are rapidly becoming 
more liberal. The credit for this movement may rightly 
be shared by higher institutions, which more and more 
recognize the educational values of industrial studies, and 
by the secondary schools, from which come frequent demands 
that higher institutions recognize that the lower schools 
have a social and educational responsibility besides that of 
preparing students for advancement to college work. A 
committee of the National Education Association, in 1911, 
held that " College admission should be based solely upon 
the completion of a well-planned high-school course." At 
this time Harvard and Chicago universities made radical 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 119 

changes in their admission requirements. In explanation 
of the change at Harvard, the chairman of the committee 
on admission wrote : " The new Harvard plan does not 
prescribe what or how a boy shall study, but leaves the 
schools free to work out their own systems of education in 
their own way in accordance with the best interests of their 
pupils and needs of the communities in which they are 
situated." ^ Similar to this is the explanation from Chicago : 
" The University has been moved to make these changes 
largely because it appreciates and sympathizes with the 
increasing demand laid upon high schools to meet the im- 
portant needs of their own communities." ^ Changes in 
many other universities are in the same direction. These 
changes are clearly in recognition of the increasing demands 
that the lower schools serve in a more direct and positive 
way the practical needs of the community. 

In addition to the development of professional schools, 
which are strictly vocational in character, and the liberaliz- 
ing of admission requirements, which is in recognition of 
vocational interests within secondary schools, universities 
add to the practical tendencies of the day by what is known 
as extension work. Through this agency universities en- 
deavor to carry directly to the people already in vocational 
activity instruction applicable to their needs. It is an 
attempt to serve the people in a very direct and positive way. 
The University of Wisconsin is a conspicuous leader in this 
work. In the organization of this division of its work the 
university recognizes " a considerable class of persons who 
are unable to adjust themselves to the formal system of 
education." Effort is made to reach all classes of people 
in all phases of work and life : " those who must work for 
their living but wish to advance themselves in their own 

^ Quoted in Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1911, 
Vol. I, pages 46-48. 



120 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

lines while they work " ; " the man — too old or unable to 
go to school, who yet needs more knowledge in his own pro- 
fession or who seeks to change his vocation " ; " the young 
man or woman who wishes to prepare for a business career " ; 
" house-keepers and home-makers who wish to keep up 
with the times " ; " practical men in business, the profes- 
sions, and vocations." One of the four departments of the 
Extension Division is that of General Information and 
Welfare. Within this department is the organization of 
Community Institutes. These local institutes are the 
" result of a demand of Wisconsin's fathers and mothers, 
the business men and housewives, for information on prob- 
lems of everyday life." " The 2731 new students who 
entered (correspondence courses) in 1912-13 and the 3055 
new students who entered in 1913-14 recorded as vocations 
pursued by them 317 different occupations ranging from that 
of the apprentice boy cobbler and house-maid to business 
man, lawyer, and doctor." ^ Such service cannot but be 
suggestive of positive tendencies toward meeting real 
needs. 

Secondary schools. When manual training and domestic 
science were introduced into our secondary schools some 
years ago, they were looked upon as only in part vocational. 
But these subjects were probably forerunners of manual 
training high schools, which were followed by vocational 
high schools, polytechnic high schools, and trade schools. 
Any clear line of demarcation between such schools is not 
made here; it is not important. In all of these emphasis 
is laid upon efficiency in commercial and industrial employ- 
ment. One feature may be here noted. This is known as 
the " part-time cooperative school." This was first or- 
ganized in 1906 at the University of Cincinnati. The 

^ For information see circulars from the Extension Division, University 
of Wisconsin. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 121 

cooperation is between manufacturer and teacher. Ex- 
perience and instruction alternate in short intervals of time. 
School work is thus brought into the very closest touch with 
real life; it serves immediate needs. Similar plans have 
been put into use in Rochester and Buffalo, New York, 
and Fitchburg, Beverly, and Springfield, Massachusetts.^ 
This points the way to a closer union of public schools and 
public service. 

An expression of the purpose and spirit of these schools 
was given in the concluding sentence of the address at the 
dedication of the Albert G. Lane Technical High School of 
Chicago, in 1909 : " Let us then loose the fetters of con- 
servatism that bind us so closely to the schools of the 
past, and let us fairly meet the demand we can no longer 
evade." ^ 

Of essentially the same character as these vocational 
schools are those known as continuation schools. The best 
types of these were to be found in Munich, Germany. All 
boys and some girls who had finished the elementary schools 
of eight grades were required to pursue their studies in the 
continuation schools. This meant two half days each week 
for three years. Employers were required to excuse these 
boys and girls on these half days. In Munich there were 
forty-six ^ continuation schools, designated according to the 
trade in which the student is employed. There were schools 
for druggists and merchants; dentists, photographers, 
jewelers ; and schools for hotel waiters, barbers, and chimney 
sweeps. Provision was made for practically every employ- 
ment into which boys and girls might go. Instruction was 

^ For further study of these vocational schools see Leavitt, F. M., Ex- 
amples of Industrial Education; also. Reports of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation. 

2 Year Book, 1910, page 51. 

^ See Kerschensteiner, G., Organization und Lehrplane der Obligator. 
Fach- und Fortbildungsschulen. Since 1910 a number of other schools have 
been added. 



122 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

directed to the practical activities of everyday life. In 
these schools the Three R's were used only as occasion re- 
quires in the vocational studies. 

In the United States continuation schools are essentially 
for boys between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, though 
night schools, which may be classed with continuation schools, 
enroll many students much older than sixteen. These 
schools are day schools, and the boys are apprentices in 
various trades. The schools in Cincinnati afford an ex- 
cellent illustration of this work. The plan for machine-shop 
apprentices includes not only the attendance of the boys 
upon the school one-half day each week, but also the visit- 
ing of teachers in their shops, " seeing the conditions under 
which they work, consulting with the foremen about their 
needs, and getting ideas and materials for guidance in teach- 
ing. This is an essential part of their work, for there is 
no handed-down course of study as yet. It must be worked 
out as they go along. '^^ 

Evening schools are essentially continuation schools. 
Young men and women who must work all day, but who 
have the ambition to advance in their own work or prepare 
for other employment, attend these schools. Such students 
are seriously handicapped in that at the close of a day's 
work there is too little energy for intellectual effort. But 
these schools meet a need keenly felt by these young people. 
The instruction given is virtually the same as that noted 
above in continuation schools. It serves everyday needs. 
The place which these schools have in the education of 
people who wish a training that functions in real life is indi- 
cated by the great extension of these schools. 

There is a striking increase in the attention given to 
agricultural education. Here again is further evidence of 
the increasing demand for education of a practical sort. 
^Leavitt, F. M., Examples of Industrial Education, page 225, 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 123 

Here also is an illustration of how such practical education 
began in the higher educational institutions and has been 
extended downward into the public schools. The Morrill 
Land Grant Act of 1862 provided a great impetus to the 
study of agriculture in colleges. This act " donated to 
each state in the Union public land scrip to the amount of 
30,000 acres for each senator and representative then in 
Congress, the income from the sale of which should be 
' for the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least 
one college, whose leading object shall be ... to teach such 
branches of learning as are related to agricultural and the 
mechanic arts ... in order to promote the liberal and 
practical education of the industrial classes in the several 
pursuits and professions of life.' It was clearly the purpose 
of the Morrill Act to establish a new type of college, and one 
that should be distinctly industrial. The objects in view 
were unique in another particular; namely, they aimed 
primarily at community development rather than the benefit 
of the individual student." ^ It was a quarter of a century 
after this act had been passed that agricultural education 
was introduced into the secondary schools of this country, 
though it had been introduced somewhat earlier in foreign 
countries. This education took an advance step downward 
into the elementary schools after another quarter of a 
century. By 1908 a number of states had added agriculture 
to the list of teachers' examination subjects and to the list 
of subjects taught in the grades. In each of the recent annual 
reports of the United States Commissioner of Education a 
chapter devoted to agricultural education shows the con- 
spicuous advancement being made in this form of educa- 
tion. Special attention is called to the advancement made 
in the elementary schools. This notable progress is credited 
to the interest shown by the pupils in this subject. Such 
^ Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, article, " Agricultural Education." 



124 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

interest is, in all probability, due to the objective nature 
of the subject, to the fact that this subject relates to a 
very active occupation of people, and to the fact that agri- 
culture is one large phase of the normal environment of 
pupils. 

Elementary schools. Pre vocational work in the grade 
schools is another indication of the attention given to practi- 
cal education. This work in the grades is a product of in- 
dustrial, vocational, and trade courses given in secondary 
schools and in higher educational institutions. It is another 
illustration of the downward advancement of practical ed- 
ucation. This work is closely allied to agricultural education 
in the grades. It is not vocational, nor is it essentially 
introductory to vocational training, as the term "prevo- 
cational " might imply. Handwork and accompanying 
studies have been introduced into the grades largely to reach 
boys and girls to whom the traditional subjects have not 
appealed. The elementary industrial school ^ of Cleveland, 
Ohio, is a good illustration. Here approximately one half 
the time is devoted to handwork, which comprises such 
activities as mechanical drawing, freehand drawing, design, 
woodworking, cooking, sewing. Attention is directed to a 
variety of occupations in adult life with which such hand- 
work is connected. 

In this connection attention should be given to the Central 
Schools established in London in 1910. These were planned 
for pupils in the upper grades of the elementary schools. 
The character of these schools is well indicated in the report 
of the Education Committee.^ 

The country schools of Winnebago County, Illinois, have 
attracted considerable attention through the very practical 

1 See Leavitt, F. M., Examples of Industrial Education, pages 102-113; 
Hailmann, W. N., Bulletin of Bureau of Education, No. 39, 1913. 

2 Report of the Education Committee of the London County Council, 
March 1, 1910. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 125 

sort of education given under the direction of the county 
superintendent, O. J. Kern.^ Country Hfe is viewed as in- 
creasingly attractive. The country child has rights that 
must be respected. " The country child shall be put into 
sympathetic and intelligent relation to his environment. 
The country-school studies shall relate more to the life of 
the child, that his life may be rendered more significant. 
In an elementary way . . . the scientific discoveries will 
greatly modify farm work and country life when the great 
mass of farmers appreciate their value; and the time for 
this appreciation to begin is when the future farmer is a 
child at school." Attention is given to garden work, boys' 
experiment clubs, educational excursions, indoor art, library 
reading, and other such activities and interests found in 
normal life out of school. 

In a goodly number of public elementary schools changes 
are being made in the direction of giving more attention 
to the affairs of everyday life. Gary, Indiana, has attracted 
much attention, more by the economic organization than 
by any great change in the character of the curriculum. 
However, the daily occupations of pupils are much more 
kin to real life than in the traditional school. A variety of 
shops afford opportunities for handwork according to the 
pupils' interest and ability. Such shop work and related 
studies have much influence in bringing the Three R's into 
closer relation to the activities of community life. Some 
ward schools in Indianapolis and some in Chicago are good 
illustrations of this same tendency. In Batavia, Illinois, 
a few years ago, an attempt was made to transform one of 
the traditional subjects, arithmetic, into a study of the 
quantitative phases of local affairs. This movement is 
looked upon as " Vitalizing Arithmetic." 

The rapid development of the junior high school move- 
^ See Kern, O. J., Among Country Schools, 



126 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

ment ^ is a further indication of this tendency to make 
public school work more closely related to life outside of 
school. This junior high school seems to be organized, on 
the one hand, to expedite the progress of students who look 
forward to higher study; on the other hand, to provide 
elementary science and vocational studies for pupils who 
will soon withdraw from school and enter industrial em- 
ployments. 

Credit for home work is one of the recent forms of recog- 
nizing the call for closer relation of school and home.^ Some 
schools allow credit toward graduation for milking the cow, 
caring for the horse, splitting kindling, sweeping, dusting, car- 
ing for the baby, brushing the teeth, attending church, etc. 
There is as yet no indication that such activities are incor- 
porated into the curriculum as topics for study. But the 
crediting of such work at home as contributing to a boy's 
or a girl's development is a step toward the reorganization 
of the curriculum to include studies of real life. 

The New York Orphan Asylum at Hastings-on-Hudson 
is a public institution quite different from the public schools 
noted above. Under the direction of Superintendent R. R. 
Reeder, emphasis is given to the interests and activities of 
the community. Mr. Reeder points out that the traditional 
curriculum is out of touch with the hum of modern life, and 
adds, " there is only one remedy for this situation and that 
lies in the direction of vocational training and a curriculum 
that takes account of what is going on in the community and 
spends less time on remote interests and abstractions." ^ 

In closing this section on public schools attention should 
be directed again to the many school surveys that have been 

1 See Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1914, Vol. I, 
pages 135-157. 

2 Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1913, Vol. I, 
pages 134-136, and reports of other dates. 

' Reeder, R. R., How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn, page 120. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 127 

made in recent years. Probably one of the most frequent 
criticisms made is that school work is not in close touch with 
the social and industrial life of the community. But the 
illustrations cited above indicate changes that are taking 
place in response to both the social demands and these survey 
criticisms. 

SuflScient illustrations have been given to indicate how 
public schools are responding to social changes. These 
changes must not be interpreted as representing the rank 
and file of public school work. Far from it. They must 
be regarded as movements under the guidance of strong, 
progressive leaders and in communities favorable to school 
changes according to social changes. 

MISCELLANEOUS EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 

Other indications of this tendency to respond to demands 
made by social changes are found in a variety of forms more 
or less closely connected with school work. 

Textbooks. Textbooks indicate this tendency. In Every- 
day Arithmetic, " The work is arranged so that there is a 
systematic development of number concepts, and of the 
fundamental facts and processes, but, in approaching the 
formal work, the book makes an important departure from 
current practice. The problems and exercises are grouped 
by situations taken from actual experience, so that a child 
meets number vitally related to his home and school interests. 
The fundamental facts and tables are taught through games 
and plays; the fundamental processes, largely through 
school and community interests." ^ In pointing out the 
nature of the work for Grades VII and VIII, provided in 
another book, the authors say : " The preceding books have 
laid emphasis on home and school interests: this book 

^ Hoyt, F. S., and Peet, H. E., Everyday Arithmetic, Preface in Book 
Two. 



128 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

reaches out into the world of business, industry, and civic 
affairs." ^ 

In Business Arithmetic for Secondary Schools, the author 
declares : " The use and application of number vary with 
the changes and development of our industrial, commercial, 
and social relations. The arithmetic of today is not the 
arithmetic of ten years ago." ^ 

In the subjects of geography and history very signijficant 
changes are indicated. The Wheat Industry is the first of 
" The Industrial Series." ^ This series, the editor states, 
" is designed for the purpose of making use of industrial 
studies in education. . . . That the natural resources are 
of fundamental importance in shaping industrial develop- 
ment is generally understood. It is likewise known that the 
industries based on the resources have relations to the life 
and welfare of the people." * A few chapter titles indicate 
the character of the subject matter contained : " Culti- 
vation and Growth," " Harvesting," " Threshing," " Trans- 
portation and Storage," " Production," " Marketing," 
" Milling." The authors point out the relation of this 
work to other school subjects : geography, agriculture, 
language, and history. Arithmetic is not included, though 
such chapters as " Harvesting," " Transportation," and 
*' Marketing " necessitate much excellent arithmetical work. 

There is a striking tendency at present to present ele- 
mentary science as a study of the commonplace environment 
of people. A teacher ^ strongly in favor of this movement 
very appropriately named one of his courses, " The Science 
of Familiar Things." Quite typical of the purposes of a 
number of recent books on elementary science is this : 

1 Hoyt, F. S., and Peet, H. E., Everyday Arithmetic, Preface in Book Three. 

2 Thurston, E. L., Business Arithmetic for Secondary Schools, Preface. 

3 Edited by G. E. Condra. 

* Bengton, N. A., and GriflSth, D., The Wheat Industry, Preface. 
^ C. Stuart Gager, now Director of Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 129 

"... to develop a more usable fund of knowledge about 
common things, and a more scientific attitude in interpret- 
ing common problems." ^ A number of such books are now 
being published. They indicate a marked emphasis on the 
study of the practical aflfairs of everyday life.^ 

Publications on practical affairs. As an illustration of a 
great quantity of publications dealing with practical affairs 
may be noted the monograph series under the direction of 
the Joint Committee of Physics of the National Education 
Association. These monographs are written by the technical 
staffs of manufacturers in cooperation with this Joint Com- 
mittee of Physics. These monographs are " intended to 
convey to teachers the point of view of men of affairs as to 
the principles and facts worth teaching to students. . . ." 
" Mechanics of the Sewing Machine," " The Edison Storage 
Battery," " Elementary Electrical Testing " are titles of 
some of the monographs.^ 

Motion pictures. Aid in education has been found re- 
cently in motion pictures. This innovation unquestionably 
contributes much to objectifying instruction and to interest- 
ing young people. But the very fact that these pictures are, 
in the main, representations of activities tends strongly to 
present to pupils industrial phases of life. For example, 
motion pictures in the realm of agriculture include such 
subjects as : " irrigation works on new farms, clearing the 
land by donkey engines, blasting tree stumps and rocks 
with dynamite, sowing wheat, reaping, threshing, etc., 
potato culture, cattle ranching, rice culture, growing stalks, 
transplanting. . . . " ^ This new invention makes possible 

^ Caldwell, O. W., and Eikenberry, W. L., General Science, Preface. 

2 Hessler, J. C, The First Year of Science; Hunter, C. W., A Civic Biology; 
Peace, C. A., A First Year Course in General Science. 

' Copies may be secured of J. A. Randal, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

* Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1913, Vol. I, 
pages 587-597. 



130 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

a more effective method of teaching, but of more significance 
is the response to the demand for instruction relating to the 
industrial occupations of men. 

Junior Civic League. Under joint direction of the public 
schools of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Lincoln Commercial 
Club is a Junior Civic and Industrial League. The purposes 
of the organization are : " (1) to study the civic and in- 
dustrial life of the city by first-hand observation ; (2) to 
learn what opportunities the industrial life of the city offers 
to young men ; (3) to teach its members to think seriously 
and wisely concerning the various vocations studied ; (4) to 
assist in preparing its members to take an active and 
efllcient place in these vocations ; (5) to connect more 
closely the work of the public schools with the life of the 
community; (6) to teach its members to aid effectively in 
meeting the civic needs of the community and to assist 
every civic institution in promoting the general welfare 
of our city." ^ A league with such purposes is answering 
social demands not provided for in the work of the public 
schools. 

Service of the school plant. The wider use of the school 
plant is another illustration of the tendency under discussion. 
The community is coming to realize that large investments 
in the school plant are not in the interests of economy unless 
that school plant contributes to the life of the community 
in ways other than instruction in the Three R's. In pur- 
suance of this policy school buildings and grounds are being 
used by the adult population for various civic purposes. 
And children, too, are enabled to use playgrounds, libraries, 
etc., out of school hours and for purposes other than school 
exercises .2 This social service of the school plant will have 

^ Typewritten statement issued by the public schools of Lincoln. 
^ See Perry, A. C, The Wider Use of the School Plant. Also Report 
of United States Commissioner of Education, 1914, Vol. I, page 455. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 131 

an unquestionable influence upon the curriculum, which will 
become more social in its nature. 

Legislative enactments. Action taken in recent years in 
Congress and in the legislatures of many of the states sup- 
plements the response given to the call for education of a 
practical sort. Reference can be made here to only a few 
typical legislative enactments. 

In 1914 Congress passed the Smith-Lever Bill. This act 
provides an initial sum of $480,000 to be distributed among 
the states for agricultural education. To this initial amount 
there is an annual increase so that after eight years the funds 
available amount to $4,580,000 annually.^ It is expressly 
provided in the act that the character of the work shall 
consist of " instruction and practical demonstrations in 
agriculture and home economics." " In the discussions of 
this bill both in Congress and throughout the country, great 
emphasis has been laid on practical field demonstrations." ^ 
The Smith-Hughes Act provides an initial sum of over one 
million dollars to be distributed among the states in the 
proportion that their rural population bears to the total 
rural population of the United States, not including out- 
lying possessions. This initial sum increases each year until 
in the year 1926 the sum of $6,000,000 is reached.^ This, 
however, is available only in case the state or local com- 
munity expends an equal amount. This act is intended to 
promote vocational education in agriculture, home economics, 
trades, and industries. 

In Indiana, in 1913, a state system of vocational educa- 
tion was enacted. The purpose of this law was to provide 
vocational instruction for the more than eighty per cent of 

^ Digest of State Laws relating to Public Education, Bureau of Education 
Bulletin, No. 47, 1915. 

^ Circular letter from the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Interior. 

' For a good summary of this law see Scliool Arts Magazine, Vol. 6, pages 
168-169, 1917. 



132 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

young people in the state, who from choice or necessity find 
their life occupations in various industrial activities.'^ One 
section from the law will illustrate its intention : " Elemen- 
tary agriculture shall be taught in the grades in all town and 
township schools; elementary industrial work shall be 
taught in the grades of all city and town schools ; and 
elementary domestic science shall be taught in all city, town, 
and township schools." ^ 

" Montana's new school code makes it obligatory for school 
districts of 5000 or more inhabitants to maintain at least 
one manual training school. ... In districts having 
10,000 or more population special courses for direct voca- 
tional training must be established, to which pupils over 
12 years of age who have completed the fifth grade may be 
admitted." 3' 4 

SCHOOL PRACTICE AND SOCIAL AIMS 

Sufficient examples have been presented to indicate 
present tendencies. This chapter may be concluded with a 
few brief statements. 

A considerable number of these changes are in process 
without specific reference to the curriculum. Efficiency 
in what people are doing is the center of thought. The 
emphasis is upon the activities of real life wholly aside from 
the school. Thus, in the schools conducted by the Santa 
Fe Railway system the effort is to produce efficiency in the 
employee. In the Boy Scout movement attention is given 
directly to achieving great things for the boys or for others 

^ See Book, W. F., First Annual Report on Vocational Education in 
Indiana, for discussions of the initiation of this work (1914). 

2 Quoted in Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1913, 
Vol. I, page 907. 

' Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1913, Vol. I, page 
909. 

* For further illustrations of such legislative enactments consult chapters 
on Educational Legislation in Reports of the Commissioner of Education. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 133 

through the boys. The George Junior RepubHc aims 
directly at the everyday living of its junior citizens. In 
trade schools emphasis is given to the training of efficient 
workers. Results are measured in terms of efficiency later. 
The adult population, engaged in industrial life, want such 
results. This explains how, in Minneapolis, a committee 
of sixty business men was organized as a means of obtaining 
closer articulation of the public schools with the real needs 
of the community life. 

On the other hand, a considerable number of the changes 
noted in this chapter are in process with special reference 
to the public school curriculum. In the normal school at 
Farmville, referred to above, effort is made to find centers 
of interest in real life that can be used in school work. In 
Everyday Arithmetic problems are taken from real experi- 
ence to serve as means of improving instruction in arith- 
metical processes. Just such is the effort in many schools 
to " vitalize " the subjects of the curriculum. In all such 
efforts there is used a bit of commonly accepted psychology : 
a secondary interest is reached through a primary interest. 
In all this the essential purpose is that of effecting more 
in the Three-R subjects. Method is the chief problem. 
Results are to be measured in terms of the Three R's, not 
in terms of real life. 

These two distinct views may be found in the changes 
noted in this chapter. In these two views is a conflict 
which seriously retards progress in educational endeavor. 
On the one hand, people are looking more and more for a 
greater practical outcome of school work. This is the social 
goal. On the other hand, people see in the traditional 
Three-R subjects the only content for school work. But 
the social goal is not in terms of the Three-R subjects. 

Only when the school curriculum becomes formulated in 
terms of the social goal as found in real life will this conflict 



134 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

disappear. In the meantime all the educational changes 
suggested by the examples given in this chapter are clearly 
showing a tendency to bring school work into closer relation 
with normal life outside of school. 



Supplementary Readings 

Baldwin, W. A. Industrial-Social Education, pages 15-52. 

BouHNE, R. S. The Gary Schools. 

BuBRis, W. P. The Public School System of Gary, Indiana. Bulletin of 

the Bureau of Education, No. 18, 1914. 
CuBBERLET, E. P. Rural Life and Education, pages 131-159, 328-347. 
Davis, J. B. Vocational and Moral Guidance, pages 112-118. 
Dewet, J. Schools of Tomorrow, pages 1-316. 
Graves, F. P. A Student's History of Education, pages 397-440. 
Kern, O. J. Among Country Schools, pages 129-200. 
Kerschensteinbr, G. The Idea of the Industrial School, pages 89-110. 
Leake, A. H. Industrial Education, pages 43-92. 
Leavitt, F. M. Examples of Industrial Education, pages 95-234. 
Perrt, C. a. The Extension of Public Education. Bureau of Education 

Bulletin, No. 28, 1915. 

Wider Use of the School Plant. 

Reeder, R. R. How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn, pages 117- 

133. 
Thomas, F. W. The Apprentice Schools of the Santa FS Railway System. 

National Education Association, 1914, pages 175-185. 



General References 

CooLET, E. G. Vocational Education in Europe. 
George, W. R. The Junior Republic. 

Graves, F. P. A History of Education (in modern times), pages 820-396. 
KiLPATRiCK, W. H. The Montessori System Examined. 
Lapp, J. A., and Mote, C. H. Learning to Earn. 
Leake, A. H. Industrial Education. 
Leavitt, F. M. Examples of Industrial Education. 

Mahonet, J. American Citizenship in the Educational Surveys. Report 
of United States Commissioner of Education, 1914, Vol. I, pages 563-596. 
MoNTESSOEi, M, The Montessori Method. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL CHANGES 135 

PABEaiB, S. C. The History of Modern Elementary Education. 

Paulsen, F. German Education, pages 169-301. 

Reports of United States Commissioner of Education under topics : " Edu- 
cational Legislation," "Vocational Progress." "Progress of City School 
Systems," etc. 

Sadlek, M. E. Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Eight 

The traditional school stresses preparation for higher schools or for 
life. 

The adult viewpoint favors preparation. 
The character of school subjects is preparatory. 
Promotion of pupils is ba,sed upon a preparatory curriculum. 
Preparatory work continues in spite of revelations of child 
study. 

Time of childhood is counted of little value. 
Motive is found in anticipation, 
Economy is secured in preparatory effort. 
In the interests of the majority of the pupils school work should meet 
present needs. 
Most children leave school before the traditional preparation 

becomes effective. 
School work should be elementary rather than introductory. 
Preparatory courses that do not prepare are costly. 
The boy and the girl are concerned with the present. 
They live in the present. 
Their motives are found in the present. 
Children's activities are in the present. 
Homes and communities need the immediate cooperation of the 
school. 

The school should help parents : 

in directing the play life of children, 
in developing in children the spirit of helpfulness. 
The school should help the public : 
in appreciating the spirit of the gang, 

in providing better direction through wholesome occupation. 
Efficiency now prepares for efficiency later. 

Provision must be made for both present and future. 
There are evidences of transfer of efficiency 
Efficiency rests upon : 

Analysis of the problem as personal. 
The spirit of initiative. 
The ability to attack a problem, 
Persistency in application. 
Tentative attitude towards results. 
136 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

The Cuericulum and Present Needs 

PRINCIPLE ONE 

The curriculum should contribute 'primarily to enabling boys 
and girls to be efficient in what they are now doing, only secon- 
darily to preparing them to be efficient later. 

The purpose of elementary education should be : To help 
boys and girls do better in all those wholesome activities in 
which they normally engage. This is the fundamental problem 
maintained throughout this book and is the natural sequence 
of the emphasis placed, at the very outset, upon the child 
viewpoint. This purpose of elementary education implies 
an unqualified reference to the immediate present. This is 
quite at variance with present school practice and is, there- 
fore, liable not to be readily accepted. The purpose of this 
chapter is to set forth the claims of the child, the home, and 
the community that school work be directed primarily in the 
interests of the present; and to show how eflSciency in the 
present includes adequate provision for the future. 

THE TRADITIONAL SCHOOL AND PREPARATION 

The adult viewpoint. Present educational practice, at 
least within the elementary school field, is clearly of a pre- 
paratory nature. Teachers and school officials — and indeed 
most of the adult population — look upon the child as one 
who is struggling to develop into the position of the adult. 
Pursuant to this view, the school officials arrange the studies 
for the young boys and girls. The adult emphasizes the 
importance of foresight and preparedness. 

" Lack of foresight " is given as explanation for many a 
failure. Ability to succeed depends very frequently up>on 

137 



138 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

that foresight which prompts one to make adequate prepara- 
tion. A young teacher fails in discipHne because she has 
not the foresight into the almost inevitable antics of the 
overactive boy in the presence of an underactive school 
curriculum. She has not prepared in advance to meet just 
that situation. She fails in instruction because she has not 
foreseen the difficulty of awakening a drowsy, inactive boy 
in the study of grammar, which makes no appeal to such a 
boy. In neither case did this teacher adequately prepare 
for these trying circumstances. A preacher fails because 
he has not foreseen the demands made by an industrial com- 
munity. A man in the oil refining business fails because he 
has not foreseen the crushing power of large monopolies. 
An army fails because its leaders have not foreseen the 
strength, the purpose, and the morale of the enemy. Lack of 
foresight into conditions and needs means inadequate prepa- 
ration to meet such conditions and needs. This explanation 
of frequent failure is so general that emphasis has been given 
to preparation in school for contingencies after school. 
Thus pupils are constrained to live and work in anticipation 
of the next grade and life after school. They must ever 
be preparing. 

In his criticism of the curriculum in the New York City 
schools, McMurry notes that evidently one article in the 
educational theory in those schools is : " The time for the 
pupil to use his knowledge acquired in school is the distant 
future ; not now." The critic later adds : " . . .the belief 
that the content of curricula should be selected with reference 
to the distant future accounts for the want of subject matter 
that appeals now to children, and, therefore, that affects 
their present conduct." ^ 

Whatever be the reasonableness of this preparation for the 

1 McMurry, F. M., Interim Report, Committee on School Inquiry, City 
ofNetu York, 1911-1912, pages 43, 115. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 139 

distant future, the nature of childhood and youth rejects 
such a principle as out of place within the curriculum of the 
elementary school. " There is danger that civilized man 
will lose the power of repose, of the ability to enjoy the 
present good in his eager strivings for the future." ^ This 
statement is still more applicable to children than to adults. 

School subjects preparatory. The traditional curriculum 
is chiefly used as a means of preparation for succeeding 
grades and later life. Since Spencer's day, and probably 
before, schooling has been regarded as a preparation for 
complete living. 

This preparatory character of the curriculum is very 
noticeable when we examine the various school subjects. 
The school " reader " is usually used as a means of preparing 
to read later. The alphabet is empty save as a step in the 
construction of words that have meaning. Yet the letters 
are taught by most parents who attempt to help their chil- 
dren, and by most teachers in the first grades. Diacritical 
marks are yet more meaningless in themselves. They are 
taught to children with the avowed purpose of preparing 
them to be independent readers later. 

The " stories " in the primer and first reader contribute 
practically nothing of immediate value to the pupil. These 
are not the narratives that children talk about, tell to their 
parents, ask to have again and again. The continuous story, 
or one that has sufficient length to provide for considerable 
development of action, appeals to children, and is quite in 
contrast to the short and countless " lessons " in most 
readers. The supplementary reader has, in rather recent 
years, found its way into the school. These readers contain 
the interesting, continuous story, but they have not sup- 
planted the old reader, and this failure is surprising. Spell- 
ing, which has been — and yet is — so closely associated with 
^ Spencer, H., quoted by Bradley, J. E., Work and Play, page 52. 



140 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

reading, is nominally a tool in reading, but is virtually of no 
service in the reading.^ However, where spelling is taught, 
it is commonly in anticipation of using such spellings later 
in composition or in reading. 

Space does not permit an analysis of school texts in 
arithmetic, language, grammar, geography, history, manual 
training, etc. It will be interesting, however, to the student 
of this problem to examine various school texts to note the 
extent to which the idea of preparation is predominant. 
He should note what an author states in the preface as his 
purpose ; how preparatory is the character of the contents ; 
how preparatory is the arrangement of topics, e.g., common 
fractions prepares the student for decimals, and this in turn 
prepares for percentage. He should note further how the 
contents are divided into portions suited to succeeding 
grades. 

Preparatory character of school organization. The usual 
system of classification and promotion is based upon the 
preparatory character of the traditional curriculum. The 
completion of fourth-grade topics is an essential prepara- 
tion for the successful pursuit of fifth-grade work. A pupil 
may thus prepare for promotion to the next higher grade by 
completing successfully the work of the grade preceding. 
Thus, each grade is a prerequisite of the grade that follows. 
The pupil is led to regard his work as of significance only as 
far as its completion prepares him for other work. 

Preparatory work and child nature. Current practice 
supports this preparatory work in spite of the revelations of 
child study. It is claimed that the time of childhood is of 
little value. This period of life may well be spent in merely 
getting ready for later life. But those who make this claim 
tacitly assume that children have nothing to live for dur- 

1 It has been clearly demonstrated that first-grade pupils can read well 
without knowing the names of the letters. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 141 

ing these early years. They value child life only in terms 
of adult accomplishments. But a life closed at the age of 
twelve cannot be said to have been lived in vain. The 
values of life may be measured in other terms than adult 
accomplishments. There is serious danger that, in our 
anxiety for future accomplishments, we underestimate time 
values with children. 

It is further claimed that a strong motive is supplied 
by " dealing in futures," in thus preparing for later life. 
More work and better is then accomplished. But children, 
as a rule, cannot look forward far, and see situations that 
attract and impel to action. Such vision is based on expe- 
rience. How early in life can yoimg men wisely choose their 
life occupations ? Adults have had much experience and too 
generally overlook this deficiency in the young and so mistake 
their capabilities. Motives are essential, but effective 
motives for pupils may be found to far better advantage in 
the immediate present. In this connection it must be said, 
with some emphasis, that the efforts which teachers put forth 
to induce pupils to take hold of school work are good evidence 
that motive found in preparation for the next grade is not so 
strong as is usually supposed. The need of specific prepara- 
tion for a definite occupation supplies many a young man 
with a strong motive for close application; but such is not 
the case with immature children. 

Economy is claimed on the ground that the preparation 
needed is largely of a mechanical nature — the acquiring of 
the tools of study — and this mechanical work may be better 
accomplished by the immature mind. Youth is the time for 
memorizing ; youth is the time for fixing habits of accuracy, 
speed, form. But psychological investigations have not yet 
given evidence that the child memorizes more readily than 
the adult or that he retains to better advantage.^ Some 
^ Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, Vol. Ill, Chapter 12. 



142 CHILD LIFE AND THE CUREICULUM 

habits are permanently fixed in youth, but children's activ- 
ities that develop into habits are much more strongly in- 
fluenced by present conditions than by future considerations. 
Time of childhood is of value to both children and adults. 
Children live in their present and contribute at once to the 
life of the home and community. Motive in present achieve- 
ment is stronger with children than motive in future con- 
tingencies. 

THE MAJORITY OF PUPILS AND PRESENT NEEDS 

Education before withdrawal from school. Public educa- 
tion should respond to public needs. In recent years great 
progress has been made in meeting the needs of the industrial 
classes through what has been termed " industrial educa- 
tion." Yet comparatively few of these industrial classes 
are reached even by this means, and the masses of the Ameri- 
can population are not included in these industrial classes. 
In recent years public education has grown popular. En- 
rollment and attendance has greatly increased. Children 
remain in school longer and advance to higher grades than 
they did twenty -five or even ten years ago. 

But in spite of these hopeful indications it must be said 
that a large majority of our pupils complete but a small 
portion of the course of study open to them. Compulsory 
attendance laws in most states call for from six to eight years 
of schooling. But this law is frequently not enforced : 
in many places it cannot be enforced. Thus many pupils of 
school age are not in attendance. Even where the law is 
vigorously enforced or where there is no attempt to violate 
the law, many pupils fail to make normal headway. Retar- 
dation tables show that many pupils fall behind the progress 
of their grade.^ This means that comparatively few acquire 
the training that is planned as a preparation for living. 
^ See Chapter Three and the studies in retardation referred to. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 143 

Elementary and introductory courses. In addressing the 
Scientific Association at the University of Missouri in 1911 
President A. Ross Hill maintained that elementary courses 
in science should be treated as though the students were to 
take no more science courses. This is in striking contrast 
to the idea which determines so many of the " introductory " 
courses in colleges and universities. " Introductory " 
courses seem planned primarily as preparation. The 
student who does not advance further loses, of course, what 
he fails to take, but worse, he fails to get much from what he 
has already taken. Preparation for that which one does 
not reach is largely, if not wholly, lost. 

In the elementary schools which use the traditional curric- 
ulum practically all of the work consists of " introductory " 
work rather than " elementary " work. Our whole educa- 
tional scheme is a sort of hierarchy, in which each lower 
grade or study pays due homage to that next above. If the 
upper limit of this preparatory arrangement were reached 
by even a majority of our school population, the situation 
would be tolerable. There is not a real stopping place 
planned in the public school system, from the elementary 
grades to the completion of the university (except in the 
professional schools). Each grade introduces to the next 
higher ; the completion of the elementary school serves as a 
popular dropping-out place for many, but in recent years 
school men are making a strenuous effort to " bridge the 
gap " ; the high school with its fifteen units on the accredited 
list is essentially a " preparatory " school. The public school 
is thus, as Professor Thorndike once aptly said, " a selective 
agency " which acts well in testing all and selecting those few 
who are prepared to go higher in this educational scheme.^ 

All grades and all classes in the elementary school should 
be strictly elementary as opposed to introductory. All 
^ Compare Draper, A, S., American Educaiion, page 278. 



144 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

phases of the work should be arranged for the pupil as though 
he were to go no further. All problems studied in the elemen- 
tary school — this means all units of subject matter arranged 
in the curriculum — should be of present value to the pupils 
irrespective of their introductory or preparatory service for 
a later time. If pupils knew their rights they would justly 
claim this character of work in school. It is, of course, 
difficult, if not impossible, to see arithmetic in this light. 
Reading lessons, grammar, and geography would be likely 
to lose some of their traditional prestige. It may be briefly 
pointed out here that the essential nature of language, 
grammar, arithmetic, etc., is the " general notion," that is, 
principles for application later, as occasion requires; for 
example : five times seven are thirty -five ; the dividend 
is equal to the divisor multiplied by the quotient ; the verb 
must agree with its subject in person and number; Albany 
is located on the Hudson River. Those subjects are therefore 
of a " preparatory " character. Thus the contention made 
here for work that is primarily without a future reference 
calls for a substitute for the usual " common branches." 
This, therefore, is a bold contention, but it lies at the very 
basis of the curriculum proposed in this volume. If the 
Three R's are essentially preparatory and if immediate needs 
are allowed priority over future needs, a change in the nature 
of the curriculum seems imperative. 

Preparatory courses not economical. But further, pre- 
paratory courses that fail to retain more than comparatively 
few pupils until they reach that stage for which they are 
being prepared cannot be considered effective. The present 
arrangement of the curriculum, providing in the early years 
work that is dominantly preparatory for later study, is not 
in the interests of good economy. " The Money Cost of the 
Repeater " ^ is an attractive title of a short chapter of con- 
^ Ayres, L. P., Laggards in Our Schools, pages 89-98. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 145 

siderable importance. In his study of conditions in fifty-five 
cities, Ayres calculates that the cost of the 311,985 repeaters 
in those schools is 15.4 per cent of the total cost of the 
schools of those cities. This amounts to $13,705,464, a 
sum that startles the taxpayer when he understands that 
all this could have been saved if those three hundred thousand 
pupils had only kept up in their grades. 

But carry this " money cost " a step further. That 
expense for repetition might be regarded as a good investment 
if it could be shown that such repetition increased the 
efficiency of the repeaters to any considerable extent. Money 
cost is the more extravagant as the results are less efiFective. 
Accepting as valid the contention made above that the 
traditional curriculum usually followed in public schools is 
essentially of a preparatory nature, investment becomes 
less economical as the pupils fail to reach beyond the prepar- 
atory stages. Here is indeed a money cost quite usually 
overlooked. New York City alone spends more than fifty 
million dollars annually in her public school system. It is 
impossible to calculate the amount of waste in this sum. 
No adequate data for such a problem are available. Such 
a calculation must not be upon the number of repeaters, 
but rather upon the number of those who fail to reach that 
situation for which the course of study is planned to " prepare 
for complete living." 

Because it is comparatively easy to calculate the money 
cost of the repeater we are quite content with such an analysis 
of the situation. There is now in evidence no means of 
determining the cost of educating pupils for positions to 
which they never attain ; and this disturbs few. We are 
too readily contented with arithmetical accuracy but too 
tardily discontented in the face of significant situations that 
do not readily admit of arithmetical measurement. 

Professor Charles A. Beard has written a valuable book 



146 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

entitled American Citizenship. This was prepared for first 
year high school students for the reason " that a large 
number of pupils drop out after the first year, and if the 
purpose of instruction in civics is good citizenship, the 
subject should be placed in the course of study at the point 
where the most students will be reached." ^ Just this is the 
important point in good economy in the elementary school 
as well as in the one subject of civics in the high school. It 
is educational economy as well as financial economy to 
teach our pupils the things really needed now, rather than 
spend so much money and energy upon preparing the masses 
for what only the select few reach. 

But Ayres wisely closes his discussion of money cost by 
asserting, " The effect of retardation is only slight in making 
school expenditures greater, but potent in making their 
effectiveness painfully less. To reduce retardation would 
greatly enhance educational efficiency rather than effect a 
financial saving." ^ To expend school funds on the masses 
but for the profit of only the classes who, by the "selective 
agency " plan, are enabled to make use of the preparation 
given, is bad economy. But there is a yet worse economy 
apparent when account is taken of the educational effect 
upon the masses who are not to profit by the things " higher 
up." This educational effect is apparent in most public 
schools and throughout the laboring classes in any com- 
munity. It is this : English grammar and English com- 
position are not productive of immediate profit, and the 
interest of the masses in study is thereby lessened. Most of 
the work in geography leads to no specific outcome, and so 
the masses turn from study to everyday life. The masses 
who cannot advance far in study are led to disparage all 
study when the curriculum before them concerns primarily 

1 Beard, C. A., American Citizenship, Preface. 

2 Ayres, L. P., Laggards in Our Schools, page 98. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 147 

only the few who will study further. The " selective 
agency " scheme is uneconomical for the masses. 

THE INDIVIDUAL PUPIL AND PRESENT NEEDS 

Children and the present. If the boy or girl were con- 
sulted as to school work he would suggest little of the past 
or the future for study. He lives in the immediate present. 
He knows little of the past ; he forecasts little of the future. 
He applies himself assiduously to his occupation for the 
time. He wastes no time in regrets for what might have 
been ; he is too much engrossed with present profit to himself 
to question as to later results. He is naively wrapped up in 
his own present environment, an environment very rich for 
him now, richer and more extensive as his experience 
increases. 

But why consult the boy or girl in school about what shall 
be taught him-f^ Has not racial experience developed what 
the present generation should acquire, and have not men of 
varied experiences studied into the future sufficiently to 
determine what is good for the young? An affirmative 
answer seems, at first, very plausible; but such an answer 
is set aside by the favorite thesis in this whole discussion : 
the great purpose of the elementary school is to help boys and 
girls do better in all those wholesome activities in which they 
normally engage. 

The nature of the boy and girl must be consulted if the 
curriculum is wisely selected and organized. The curriculum 
must be made to suit the boy and girl, not the boy and girl 
shaped to the Procrustean curriculum. 

Motives in the present. In this connection a word on 
children's motives is important. Further discussion of this 
will be presented in Chapter Eighteen. Much emphasis has 
been given in recent years to the importance of using chil- 
dren's instincts, their interests, their feeling of need, in short. 



148 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

their motives. In their own real life children's motives are 
strong and they are many. There is a strong motive at 
every normal turn. Here motive is merely the clear recogni- 
tion of a situation and the importance of acting so as to 
adjust oneself better to that situation. Any subject matter 
must be used by the pupil exactly as a hoe or spade is used 
by the farmer : it is an instrument by which he does what 
is wished. It is impossible, then, if we are conscientiously 
consistent, to arrange first our " instruments " — the set 
lesson units — and then create situations for the purpose 
of building up motives. Motives are thus made subordinate 
to instruments. 

Children are naive if allowed to be. They are natural, 
not artificial. They normally meet real needs, they expe- 
rience genuine motives. Situations artificially constructed 
by adults for the purpose of giving pupils " motives " for 
attending to previously prescribed tasks are not in harmony 
with the real nature of children. This artificiality is under- 
stood by the child sooner than teachers or parents realize. 
The teacher's difficulty is then very considerably increased. 

Motives may be operative in the immediate present or 
guide action with reference to a later time. The traditional 
curriculum is almost universally recognized as a plan of 
preparation for later use. Motives that lead to a study of 
arithmetic, for example, are to be found in the recognition 
of a later need for such subject matter. We may seem to 
appeal to present motives when we construct an artificial 
situation calling for certain knowledge of arithmetic.^ But if 
the situation is artificially constructed by the teacher and 
is not found in the normal experience of the pupil, the need 
is not a real need. Motive is consequently artificial and has a 
reference only to later possible needs. The child's motive 
must be found in his recognition of a real need in the present. 
^ Compare Charters, W. W., Methods of Teaching, pages 146-184. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 149 

Activity in the present. Boys and girls of elementary- 
school age are intensely active. The period of infancy, 
including more than the school age, is the period of growth, 
and this growth is dependent upon activity. In spite of the 
too common attempt of the adult to repress the child, his 
activity will out. Repression must yield to expression. 
Without this strong tendency to activity the development 
of the child would be hopeless. It is the active pupil, even 
if mischievous, that promises most. Advocates of the 
culture-epoch theory support this position and call attention 
to the interest of children in imitating the activities of 
primitive men — children enjoy tomahawking and scalping 
excursions. But one need only observe, on streets where 
children play, how they enjoy " dressing up " and acting, 
not in representing primitive peoples or racial experience, 
but merely in being more active. Feathers, paint, dagger, 
and helmet serve as an " extension of personality " and 
incite to increased activity. In the same way adults' cloth- 
ing, false faces, paper hats, and the like incite children to 
a parade and other forms of active expressions. A dull 
monotony is the impression which the usual school makes 
upon the pupils; monotonous and dull largely because of 
the lack of childlike activity inherent in the regular work of 
the school. Free play at recess, boisterous as it may be, 
cannot compensate for the repression practically necessitated 
by the traditional curriculum. 

Many writers and practical school men tacitly assume that 
the traditional school subjects must be taught. The problem 
then becomes one of method of infusing into the work such 
activities as will meet children's needs and serve as motives 
in inducing them to " take hold." This procedure is 
inadequate. 

Child nature insists upon present interests — for the 
child. Appreciation of the past and insight into the future 



150 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

vary with the character and the amount of experience. 
The elementary school pupil has had but little experience. 
His interests are thus largely limited to the present. Chil- 
dren have motives in the normal course of their lives — 
many motives, and rich motives, but practically all these 
motives relate to present needs. Children are intensely 
active, not in searching out the past nor prospecting as to 
the future, but in adjusting themselves to their own in- 
creasingly complicated and increasingly interesting environ- 
ment. The curriculum outlined in Chapters Thirteen to 
Sixteen is planned to meet child nature by providing ac- 
tivities and studies of activities that constitute the real 
environment of children of elementary school age. 

PRESENT NEEDS IN THE HOME AND COMMUNITY 

Relation of school and home. Boys and girls need help 
in their activities at their homes and in their communities. 
So also, the homes and communities in which children live 
need the assistance of the schools in directing these young 
people. This need is scarcely questioned, but the immediacy 
of this need is quite generally overlooked. The stress of the 
traditional school upon preparing pupils for the exigencies of 
later life is only an expression of the custom of thinking by 
the people. The adult looks forward in the interests of 
children and communities later, and quite overlooks present 
conditions. Present needs are slighted. 

A great deal is being said and written on the importance 
of bringing the home and the school more closely together. 
" What can be done . . .to bring the school into closer 
relation with the home and neighborhood life — instead of 
having the school a place where the child comes solely to 
learn certain lessons? What can be done to break down 
the barriers which have unfortunately come to separate 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 151 

the school life from the everyday life of the child ? " ^ Dewey 
here presents one side of this closer union; that is, the 
bringing of school life nearer to out-of-school life. But the 
more usual theory and the more evident practice are on the 
other side ; that is, the bringing into the school such of real 
life as may be adapted to educational work. The school 
is made central. One rather conspicuous organization con- 
tributing to this policy is the mothers' club. This organiza- 
tion is clearly independent of the school but cooperates with 
teachers and officials. The real intent in these mothers' 
clubs is unquestionably good. However, there is a serious 
weakness in evidence, largely due to a misunderstanding 
as to the real relation between school and home, and the 
possibilities of service on the part of such clubs. The 
International Congress on Home Education has expressed 
much that is in keeping with the work of the mothers' club. 
Instead of looking upon the school as in need of their 
help, these parental organizations should point out to the 
school its opportunities to help the home and community. 
The school is in danger of atrophying by living within 
itself rather than by serving the interests of home and 
community. 

The most practical purpose of the elementary school is 
to help hoys and girls do better in all those wholesome activities 
in which they normally engage, quite aside from the school. 
We must not, of course, expect too much of the school in 
improving the home life of children. Teachers rightly 
complain of the difficulty of doing much in the development 
of good habits in children when school influence is limited 
to such a small amount of time compared with home influence. 
But this disproportion of time only increases the opportunity 
and responsibility of devising an educational plan that 
extends much further than school yard and school hours. 
^ Dewey, J., School and Society (first edition), page 116. 



152 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Teachers and school officials must not shirk this responsibility. 
Opportunity carries with it responsibility. 

Moreover, care must be taken not to judge too favorably 
the homes of the masses of children by the homes of teachers, 
college students, or the more cultured of public school pupils. 
These are the select few and probably come from homes 
superior to those of the masses of little people who make 
comparatively little headway in school. There are no 
suitable data at hand for judging the specific needs of homes. 
But think of what is included in the usual list of virtues called 
for : ^ Honesty means being honest in scores upon scores 
of daily relationships with others of the family ; cooperation 
means helping in all the multiplicity of home activities; 
generosity means the giving attitude in thousands of cases. 
So with all the virtues belonging to home life. Virtues are 
practiced in concrete instances only. In each of these 
children need helpful direction. 

Play and work at home. Students of social problems find 
in the decadence of the home the great cause of social evils, 
especially among young people. ^ Industrial evolution lead- 
ing to the factory system has broken the unity of the home. 
It is bad enough when two thirds of the men and nearly 
one fifth of the women ^ in America work away from the 
home. It is yet worse when, under such circumstances, 
common interests and sympathetic cooperation are scattered 
to the winds. All this may be unavoidable under prevailing 
social and economic conditions. The school cannot amelio- 
rate these conditions at once — it can do directly but little 
to collect the fathers and mothers and give them work within 
their own home. The opportunity of the school is to give 
boys and girls an interest in a variety of commpnplace ac- 

^ Compare lists given by Sneath, E. H., and Hodges, G., in Moral Train- 
ing in the School and Home, pages 86, 110. 

^ Travis, T., The Young Malefactor, page 167. 
» Nearing, S., Social Adjustment, page 162. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 153 

tivities of mutual helpfulness in the home — to counteract, 
so far as possible, the baneful influence of our modern in- 
dustrial life. 

In a very simple way, what a need to study in school 
things already experienced in the home and in other places 
of daily life ! Children have their associations with other 
children. Mothers are called upon to suggest games for 
them to play, and then to show them how to play. Ere long 
these same good, busy mothers are again under obligation 
to settle some small dispute between the players. How 
usually at children's parties is there a real diflSculty in pro- 
viding a genuinely suitable entertainment ! There is thus 
need now in our homes that children learn how to make 
provision for such social hours. Parents, mothers especially, 
would appreciate such assistance from the schools. Children 
are probably best reared in those homes where some duties, 
more particularly in some form of handwork, are required. 
What an advantage to parents and children now if the schools 
enabled the children to make many things useful and orna- 
mental — holders, doilies, mats, etc. ! The practical value 
of such things is equaled or even exceeded by the aesthetic 
influence of such articles when they are worked out with 
artistic design. Home means the more to those children who 
participate the more in the real life of the home. "... The 
more immediate purposes of instruction must be found 
among the leading things necessary for proper daily living, 
— that is, we must look directly to the life about us to find 
what subject matter the school should offer, and how this 
should be treated. Its curriculum will be good to the extent 
that it contains problems . . . that are socially vital and 
yet within the pupils' appreciation. . . ." ^ Here is 
a theory commonly accepted. But not until subject 

^ McMurry, F. M., Interim Report, Committee on School Inquiry, City 
of New York, 1911-1912, pages 6-7. 



154 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

matter is actually outlined in terms of home life can the 
school contribute positive help to children in their home 
life. 

The school and the public. One cannot read accounts of 
juvenile offenders without becoming strongly convinced that 
some institution, home, church, school, state, or the like, 
is under grave responsibility to help young people live better 
now in their own neighborhood. " The offences for which 
children are tried before the courts are usually of a trivial 
nature, such as stealing a neighbor's rabbit, harassing a 
peddler, throwing snowballs in city streets, entering vacant 
buildings, or lighting bonfires in dangerous places. The 
motive for many of these delinquencies is often proven to be 
pure mischief — as one group of juveniles expressed it, ' Just 
to be chased by the ginney.' " ^ 

The spirit of the gang. Jane Addams gives the following 
as illustrative of what boys do in answer to their craving for 
adventure : " (1) Building fires along the railroad track ; 
(2) flagging trains; (3) throwing stones at moving train 
windows ; (4) shooting at the actors in the Olympic Theater 
with sling shots ; (5) breaking signal lights on the railroad ; 
(6) stealing linseed oil barrels from the railroad to make a 
fire ; (7) taking waste from an axle box and burning it upon 
the railroad tracks; (8) turning a switch and running a 
street car off the track; (9) staying away from home to 
sleep in barns; (10) setting fire to a barn in order to see 
the fire engines come up the street; (11) knocking down 
signs; (12) cutting Western Union cable." ^ 

In his study of sixty-six gangs of boys, Puffer gives 
the following group ' activities in which these gangs are 
engaged : ' 

1 Travis, T., The Young Malefactor, page 20. 

* Addams, J., The Spirit of Youth and the City Street, pages 55-56. 

» Puffer, J. A., The Boy and His Gang, page 40. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 155 

Pee Cent 

Group games — baseball, football, basketball, hockey, etc 80 

Tribal industries — hunting, fishing, etc 74 

Predatory activities — stealing, injuring property, etc 74 

Fighting 70 

Swimming 68 

Migrations 67 

"Plaguing people" 67 

Going to theaters 58 

Running games — relievo, chase, etc 47 

Smoking 45 

Playing cards 38 

Skating 50 

Sliding 18 

Drinking 11 

Some of these activities are highly commendable, such as 
baseball, hockey, fishing. On the other hand, it is a sad 
story when we read that 74 per cent of these gangs engage in 
stealing and injuring property, 70 per cent in fighting, 67 
per cent in plaguing people, and the like. 

Probably most adults are ill-disposed to regard such 
activities as mere mischief on the part of the boys, especially 
if mischief is to be regarded as only the normal result of 
effort to entertain and profit self without regard to the 
pleasure or welfare of others. Such youthful characteristics 
persist because they prove useful to boys as they view life. 

The pictures presented by Miss Addams in her writings 
and her addresses, showing how the youth of Chicago — 
and other places also — get into all sorts of trouble for them- 
selves and into considerable trouble for the community; 
the summary of juvenile court proceedings given by Travis, 
showing the thousands of petty " crimes " (so called) com- 
mitted in the community by mere boys ; the story of the 
mischievous antics committed by gangs of boys as told by 
Puffer and Forbush : ^ these and many other such studies 
impress upon those responsible for the education of the 

1 Forbush, W. B., The Boy Problem. 



156 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

youth the importance of the problem of helping boys and 
girls live better now in the community. 

The need of wholesome occupation. Great reforms have 
been made in the treatment of these unfortunates. Cor- 
rection by punishment has given way to change of attitude 
through wise and kind guidance. This is now the great 
work done by the juvenile court. The school can contribute 
much by cooperation with court officials. This fact is 
recognized by Judge Lindsey. But the school must find its 
larger opportunity not in this correction, but in a normal 
prevention of such misdemeanors. Idleness of hand and 
mind is probably one of the conditions most potent in leading 
young people into mischief and misdemeanor. While in 
school, boys and girls are freed from evil by restraint if 
not by real employment. But one must ask to what extent 
" lessons " assigned for home work in the usual school 
provide against an idleness during the many hours spent 
out of school. The curriculum outlined in Chapters Thirteen 
to Sixteen attempts to meet this situation by studying in the 
concrete the activities enjoyed by children and adults. An 
appreciative acquaintance with community activities is quite 
an antidote to idle disregard of community interests. 

But a community needs better direction given to the com- 
mendable gang spirit. The ofiicer of the law says, " Stop," 
" Don't," " Leave." He commands not to do what the law 
deems detrimental to society. The school has here the 
opportunity to suggest, on the positive side, what boys may 
do, acceptable to the neighborhood; and the neighborhood 
needs that service now. The school has opportunity to 
serve the community very much more effectively in directing 
the activities of young people now than in striving to prepare 
pupils for the life of citizens later. 

" If children behave badly in the street, or if they are lazy, 
the school is questioned. That is, the public holds the 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 157 

school responsible for developing character now, while the 
pupil is still young." ^ Would that this were more true 
and that it were so recognized by the schools. Did the 
schools feel that responsibility more keenly, more attention 
would be directed to helping young people of school age in 
conducting themselves more circumspectly in neighborhood 
life. Mischief and antics of youth are not to be stopped by 
reiteration of " Don't " on the part of parents or officers of 
the law. Repression of youthful vigor is sure to be followed 
by expression of youthful vigor in some other direction. 
To substitute for mischievous activities interests in whole- 
some accomplishments is the only sane method of correcting 
such undesirable conditions. Students of social problems and 
of boy gangs in particular are convinced that the underlying 
principle in the gang is commendable, but the activity 
of the gang needs direction by those better informed in social 
problems than the boys themselves. The gang needs to 
learn in school of the numberless wholesome interests in 
which children can engage. 

EFFICIENCY NOW AND EFFICIENCY LATER 

The present and the future. Efficiency now is the best 
preparation for efficiency later. Paradoxical as this state- 
ment may seem, the position taken here is in support of the 
principle given at the opening of this chapter : the curriculum 
should contribute primarily to helping boys and girls to be 
efficient in what they are now doing, only secondarily to 
helping them to be efficient later. In other words, the best 
way to prepare boys and girls of elementary school age for 
the next grade is not to stress preparation, but to enable them 
to be highly efficient in the wholesome activities in which 

^ McMurry, F. M., Interim Report, Committee on School Inquiry, City 
of New York, 1911-1912, page 7. 



158 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

they may be engaged, provided, of course, that such activities 
be normal in their stage of development. 

The chief purpose of the elementary school is not to 
prepare for later life, but to help the child to live more fully 
in the immediate present. This is in accordance with his 
nature; the home and the community are in need of that 
service now ; as most pupils are not in school long enough to 
prepare adequately for later life, under present conditions, 
it is the more reasonable to meet present needs. And yet, 
in thus emphasizing the importance of the present, one can- 
not be unmindful of the obligation of parents and schools to 
contribute as much as possible to the preparation of children 
for the exigencies of later life. 

Accepting the principle that " to prepare for complete 
living " later is a purpose of the elementary school, even if it 
is subordinate to a more immediate purpose, it is imperative 
that provision be made for such preparation. It is clear 
also that in case one curriculum were used to meet immediate 
needs and another to prepare for later needs, such a plan 
would be poor economy. If possible, one curriculum should 
serve both the primary purpose and the secondary. As 
pointed out above, the traditional subjects serve primarily as 
preparation for the future. Can any curriculum prepare as 
well for later needs, while at the same time it serves primarily 
the present ? 

Transfer of efficiency. On the basis of the doctrine of 
" formal discipline " strictly interpreted, the traditional 
studies are as good for preparation as any. Reject that 
doctrine (as we must) and those studies are better than others 
in case needs are in terms of the subject matter of these 
traditional studies. But the real experiences of the merchant, 
the banker, the lawyer, the farmer, and the laborer are not, 
for the most part, in terms of arithmetic, geography, and 
language. Ileal experiences deal with personalities and 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 159 

physical phenomena far too complicated to be designated 
in such terms. The case is, therefore, against the formal 
subjects that touch real life in no particular points. The 
argument is thus in favor of studies in terms of the activities 
of everyday life, that is, the best preparation for meeting 
later needs is a training in those particular activities in 
which the child will be engaged later. But clearly it is 
impossible to foresee, so far in advance, all such conditions.^ 

Under these circumstances that system of studies will 
prepare best that provides the largest number of points of 
contact with the varied activities into which the individual 
will enter later. Adult life consists of a great variety of social 
and industrial activities. But just such activities, in simpler 
forms, make up the lives of little people. In helping boys 
and girls to do better in all their normal activities and 
interests, the teacher is bringing them into touch with a very 
extended range of activities that will constitute their adult 
life. It must, of course, be recognized that many activities 
studied in school will not function directly in adult life and 
many experiences will be met later in anticipation of which 
no activities were provided in youth. 

" Formal discipline," in the strict sense, is rejected. But 
formal discipline so liberally interpreted as to admit of many 
elements in common in earlier and later experience must be 
accepted .2 Pupils generally strong in the upper grades of 
the traditional school are found to be relatively strong in 
what they undertake later. To a much greater extent will 
this be the case if boys and girls are enabled to be efficient 

^ Some years ago the author was dining at a restaurant in Albany, N. Y. 
A young man, a fond father, was serving at the table. He was soon boasting 
of his two-year-old boy who had already decided, so the father asserted, to 
be a foreign missionary. Some two years later at the same restaurant this 
same waiter was asked: "How is the young missionary?" "Oh," he 
answered, "the boy changed his mind : we don't know now what will become 
of him. He's a little holy terror." 

8 Compare Thomdike, E. L., Principles of Teaching, pages 235-249. 



160 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

in the great variety of activities normal to them when those 
activities are similar to those of later life. There are a 
larger number of elements in common. 

The traditional subjects, arithmetic, spelling, geography, 
etc., contribute but little to the present life of children. 
Their chief function is preparatory. But even in this they 
are weakening in the face of present social and industrial life. 
Studies in the everyday activities and interests of little 
people do contribute directly to efficiency in their present 
life and the logic of the situation supports the claim that 
such studies contribute effectively to the preparation for later 
life. 

Evidences of transfer of efficiency. Adequate data are 
not within reach to prove the validity of this thesis : Effi- 
ciency now is the best preparation for efficiency later. 
However, some studies support this position and are here 
presented. 

High school and university. Dearborn studied " The 
Relative Standing of Pupils in the High School and in the 
University." ^ He reached the conclusion that " three 
fourths of the students maintain throughout the university 
approximately the same rank which they held in high school." 
This is quite as would be expected, especially when it is noted 
that in the university the student takes such subjects as he 
had in the high school, e.g., English, history, mathematics. 
In his study of the correlation by separate studies. Dear- 
born found that the index of relation is lower than that for 
the general average. That is, the average standing of the 
student in his university work is closer to his average standing 
when in the high school than his standing in history, for 
example, in the university in relation to his standing in history 
in the high school. Putting these two findings ' together, 
some support is given to the thesis that general efficiency now 

* Dearborn, W. F., Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 812. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 161 

prepares for general efficiency later. The generally successful 
student in the high school is the generally successful univer- 
sity student. 

Wesley an University graduates. A study was made of 
1667 graduates of Wesleyan University. Standing in the 
university as indicated by " honors," Phi Beta Kappa, and 
" 011a Pod points " (honors bestowed by classmates on the 
basis of student activities) was compared with distinction 
in life after graduation as indicated in Who's Who. This 
conclusion was reached : " The Phi Beta Kappa man and the 
one who is honored by his classmates by election and under- 
graduate office have each approximately the same chance of 
becoming famous in after life." ^ This study indicates that 
efficiency in scholastic work and efficiency in undergraduate 
student activities lead to similar efficiency later. 

Elementary texts. In recent years a number of text- 
books 2 on general science have been published. These 
books seem to be pioneer efforts to present elementary 
science, not as a preparation for later and more advanced 
work, but strictly as a means of meeting present needs. 
There is a decided tendency to view such work, if well done, 
as contributing to efficiency in more advanced study by those 
who choose to continue, though the primary purpose is not 
preparation, but the satisfaction of a present need. Editorial 
comment in the School Review for June, 1913, is typical : 
*' Any good work must be considered good preparation for 
the following years of high school and college. Facts which 
will be needed in the future years of any course at school 
are best taught when they are needed," In this connection 
note should be taken of a summary of opinions on the teaching 

^ Nicholson, F. W., "Success in College and in After Life." School and 
Society, Vol. 2, pages 229-232. 

2 Barber, F. D., First Course in General Science; Clark, B. M., An In- 
troduction to Science; Caldwell, O. W., and Eikenberry, W. L., Elements 
of General Science. 



162 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

of science : " The schools reached the lowest point in real 
science instruction when, under the stress of preparing for 
higher institutions, they narrowed their work to ' the forty 
quantitative experiments.' " ^ 

Entrance requirements. The marked tendency in the 
entrance requirements in universities is in support of this 
principle. Earlier, specific preparation was demanded as 
necessary for the pursuance of higher studies. Now there 
is evidently a disposition to recognize good work done in 
secondary schools as suitable qualification for admission. 
Efiiciency earlier prepares for efficiency later.- 

These few instances are not presented as proofs, but only 
as indications of what seems the truth. Reliable conclusions 
must wait until more complete data are available. But these 
studies seem to support the proposition that efficiency in 
what one is doing now prepares the individual for being effi- 
cient in what he may do later. This is proposed as a principle 
only in the education of children of elementary school age, 
where special technic is not essential for efficiency. While 
this principle applies to the formal traditional curriculum, 
in a measure, it applies much more effectively to the course 
of study herein outlined. The explanation is simple. The 
curriculum proposed is directly concerned with a much wider 
range of activities — a range as extended as the interests of 
elementary pupils may be. 

Elements in efficiency. In what does this preparation 
consist — this preparation that is carried over from the 
elementary school experience to later experience in high 
school or in life outside of school ^ This preparation cannot 
be in terms of arithmetic, for efficiency in later life with most 

1 Woodhull, J. F., Educational Review, Vol. 48, pages 298-300. 

2 Compare Thorndike, E. L., " The Future of the College Entrance 
Examination Board," in Educational Revieio, Vol. 31, pages 470-483; 
Jones, A. L., "Entrance Examinations and College Records," in Educa- 
tional Review, Vol. 48, pages 109-122. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 163 

of those who are now pupils in the elementary school is not 
to be measured in terms of arithmetic, language, geography, 
etc. The question as to what is carried over from an earlier 
to a later stage may be almost synonymous with the question : 
What are the elements that make for efficiency in any phase 
of life? The following brief analysis of the efficient man is 
offered as a contribution to the answer. 

The 'problem as personal. It is of importance that the 
situation be sufficiently well understood that a real problem 
may be appreciated, and that this problem be deeply felt 
as a personal one. The teacher's arbitrary assignment of 
the next ten pages in history, or nine problems in arithmetic, 
or certain descriptions in geography, cannot be felt by the 
pupil as a real problem and a personal problem. A laboring 
man, a clerk, any subordinate who merely executes directions 
of a superior is not solving real problems. He is efficient 
only as a machine is efficient. Genuinely real problems 
cannot be assigned to one by some one else. Real problems 
develop in one's normal experience. They are the result 
of confficting conditions. The arbitrarily assigned problem 
is virtually only a contentless exercise — a sort of mechanical 
drill. An efficient clerk in a grocery store must observe 
sufficiently well to know why his employer's trade is de- 
creasing ; it may be because of lack of cleanliness in the store. 
He senses the problem as personal because he himself can 
effect a change. Such is the case in other industrial or 
business occupations. In school work such a problem 
grows out of common interest in the activities that affect 
the pupils. A class is studying the grocery store as a 
local industry directly affecting them all. How does 
the merchant serve his patrons with vegetables? This 
question becomes a personal problem. Efficiency calls 
for an attitude of sensing problems and regarding them as 
personal. 



164 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Initiative essential. Initiative in working at the problem 
is essential for efiPectiveness. Those who must be constantly 
told to work or study accomplish little. Assigned lessons in 
school are virtually directions to go to work. Very little 
effective studying is done by the students under such cir- 
cumstances. 

It is not at all natural that this initiative display itself 
upon the traditional curriculum. Work there is not upon 
normal but only upon artificial problems. Initiative is 
aroused when one meets, under normal circumstances, a 
situation which is felt as a personal problem. School work 
is not the most effective, in the present or as preparation for 
later work, when it is in response to assigned tasks — lessons 
— as many each day as the pupil has subjects for study. 
Pupils soon learn to work upon their own initiative when a 
large problem covering several days or even weeks is before 
them. There is no definite amount of work that must be 
accomplished each day, but a large piece of work is to be 
done to the best of one's ability. This opportunity presents 
a strong appeal to initiative in young people, who need more 
of this opportunity. Too little of this type of work is offered 
in the traditional curriculum. A curriculum that deals 
more specifically with the activities of everyday life presents 
in a large way this opportunity. Initiative is very potent in 
efficiency. The spirit of initiative carries over into later life. 

Method of study. How to study ^ is one of the new problems 
in educational discussion. Methods of teaching have been 
much discussed for some time. Processes of learning have 
been given considerable attention. But study is different 
from learning.2 Discussions on methods of study are limited 
too much to the formal school lessons. Study is too nar- 

1 McMurry, F. M., How to Study; Earhart, Lida, Systematic Study in 
the Elementary Schools. 

^ In German schools the term "lernen" has applied to the work of young 
pupils; "studieren," to the work of older pupils. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 165 

rowly considered; it belongs to the real life of children far 
more than in school lessons. School problems ought not to 
be essentially different from out-of-school problems. A boy 
of twelve is given a camera by his father. The boy has seen 
the photographer at work using a tripod. He wishes a tripod 
for his camera. The price of a manufactured tripod is not at 
his command, but a bench and tools are within his reach. 
He observes another tripod; he notes certain essentials, e.g., 
stability and adjustability. But in the commercial product 
are fixtures which he cannot duplicate. He must invent a 
more homely device. This method of attach is an essential 
in eflSciency. One must analyze conditions and then con- 
struct measures under the guidance of the personal problem 
before him. In the usual school work there is little call for 
such study. There is usually learning rather than study. 
So-called " problems " are artificial, designed for training, 
rather than growing naturally out of the meeting of real 
needs. School work may have the form of a real out-of- 
school problem. For example : "A hare is 80 leaps before 
a hound. The hare takes four leaps while the hound takes 
three. But two of the hound's leaps are equal to three of 
the hare's. How many leaps must the hound take to catch 
the hare ? " ^ Such a problem might represent a real situa- 
tion, but even if it did, no boy or girl would be at all interested 
in the conclusion that the hound must jump 480 times 
before he pounced upon this exceptional and foolish little 
animal. The problem is clearly presented as an exercise 
in fractions. It is a real puzzle to most pupils. Real 
problems, true to life, normally arising as a common interest 
or experience, invite the pupil to analyze conditions and 
invent means to satisfy needs. Such a method of attack 
is common to all problems in experience, and is carried over 
from earlier into later life. 

^ As remembered from an old text in arithmetic. 



166 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Persistence. Persistence is a requisite in efficiency. 
This statement needs no support by way of discussion. It 
may be pointed out, however, that in the traditional school 
work, the artificial problems are too limited to provide the 
opportunity for the sort of persistence which is really valu- 
able. " Lessons " are comparatively short. Real life prob- 
lems vary in length and difficulty. If problems arise by 
reason of real needs felt by the pupils as personal, persistence 
is natural. In the curriculum herein proposed sixth-grade 
pupils spend about eight weeks of two and one half hours 
each day on the one problem, how manufacturing is 
carried on. This is an industry that aflPects all and in a 
variety of aspects is felt by pupils as a personal problem. 
This spirit of persistency in working out a real problem is 
carried over from an earlier to a later experience. 

Tentative attitude. The tentative attitude toward results 
is a characteristic of the efficient man. In real life no 
problems are finally settled. " Circumstances alter cases." 
Changes are taking place. Market prices depend upon 
supply and demand. In the traditional curriculum pupils 
usually get the notion that the several " problems " on 
which they are working are solved ; conclusions are reached 
and set aside as final. The hound must take 480 leaps. 
The artificial problem of the school leads too much to the 
** rest-on-your-oars " attitude. It prompts to idleness 
until the next assignment. The tentative attitude — the 
open-mindedness toward all results — is the attitude that 
spurs one on to the discovery of new conditions and the 
sensing of new problems. This is the spirit that is fostered 
by the curriculum which deals directly with the social and 
industrial activities in real life. This open-mindedness is 
carried over to later experiences. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 167 

OPPORTUNITY FOR A CURRICULUM OF PRESENT ACTIVITIES 

" It has been held that interests in the school must in the 
nature of the case be at first largely artificial. The child 
is supposed to be preparing for adult life, but he is not 
surrounded by the conditions of adult life and has not within 
himself the natural impulses of adults. It is assumed 
therefore that interests in adult activities must be artificially 
stimulated. It may be questioned in the first place whether 
the child cannot in a large measure better be prepared for 
adult life by living most completely the life of a child and 
developing in a natural way the interests of childhood, later 
youth and manhood, as the conditions and instinctive 
tendencies change." ^ 

Dewey states Rousseau's central idea in these words : 
" The child is best prepared for life as an adult by experienc- 
ing in childhood what has meaning to him as a child, and 
further, the child has a right to enjoy his childhood. Because 
he is a growing animal who must develop so as to live success- 
fully in the grown-up world, nothing should be done to 
interfere with growth, and everything should be done to 
further the full and free development of his body and his 
mind." 2 

In this chapter emphasis has been given to the importance 

of attending to immediate needs. On the contrary, the 

custom of preparing for later occasions is due largely to the 

adult viewpoint. Quite naturally the adult asks : How 

shall the boy prepare for the duties he must meet at my 

stage of life.f' The boy, whose vision is limited according 

to his experience, acts as though the question were : How 

can I get the very most out of what I am now doing ? The 

traditional curriculum is accepted as the answer to the 

adult's question. The curriculum presented in this volume 

^ Kirkpatrick, E. A., The Individual in the Making, page 32. 
2 Dewey, J., Schools of Tomorrow, pages 17-18. 



168 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

is proposed as an answer to the boy's question. By reason 
of early withdrawal from school most boys and girls never 
reach just the adult stage designed in the Three-R curricu- 
lum. Further, as the boy and the girl are concerned, by 
nature, primarily with their present, the essentially pre- 
paratory curriculum does not, it cannot, appeal to their 
motives and provoke in them the generous responses as a 
curriculum that concerns itself primarily with their present 
environment. Again, the traditional curriculum, in its 
emphasis upon preparation, misses a great opportunity to 
serve both individual and community when both need such 
service. Finally, preparation for efficiency later is more 
effectively made when children of the elementary school age 
are given the opportunity to exercise those traits that con- 
tribute so much to efficiency in all phases of life. This 
opportunity is conspicuously larger in a curriculum of 
present activities than in the curriculum of traditional forms. 

Supplementary Readings 

Addams, Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Street, pages 3-21. 

Atres, L. p. Laggards in Our Schools, pages 89-98. 

Baglet, W. C. The Educative Process, pages 203-217. 

(Compiled.) The Child in the City, pages 125-133. 

Davis, J. B. Vocational and Moral Guidance, pages 193-197. 

Dean, A. D. The Worker and the State, pages 61-146. 

Draper, A. S. American Education, pages 278-290. 

Eliot, C. W. Education for Effixdency. 

The Training for an Effective Life, pages 1-78. 

FiNDLAT, J. J. Demonstration School Record, Vol. II, pages 19-38. 

FoRBUSH, W. B. The Boy Problem, pages 42-157. 

Johnston, C. H. The Modern High School, pages 312-317. 

Meriam, J. L. The School's Contribution to the Home, Report (1910) In- 
ternational Congress on Home Education. 

Nearing, Scott. Social Adjustment, pages 48-69, 161-175. 

Page, W. H. The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths, pages 49-104. 

Sneath, E. H., and Hodges, G. Moral Training in the School and Home, 
pages 71-138. 



THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENT NEEDS 169 

General References 

Dewey, J. The Child and the Curriculum. 

Fabwell, p. T. Village Improvement. 

McMxJKRY, F. M. How to Study and Teaching How to Study. 

Elementary School Standards. 

Puffer, J. A. The Boy and His Gang. 
Travis, T. The Young Malefactor. 

Studies Suggesting Relation of EflSciency Now to Efficiency Later 

CoBNMAN, O. P. Spelling in the Elementary School, pages 46-70. 

Dearborn, W. F. Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 312. 

Jones, A. L. "Entrance Examinations and College Records." Educa- 
tional Review, Vol. 48, pages 109-122. 

Lowell, A. L. "College Studies and Professional Training." Educational 
Review, Vol. 42, pages 217-233. 

Meriam, J. L. Normal School Education and Efficiency in Teaching. 

" How Well May Pupils be Prepared for High School Work without 

Studying Arithmetic, Grammar, etc., in the Grades ? " Journal of Educa- 
tional Psychology, Vol. 6, pages 361-364. 

Nicholson, F. W., " Success in College and in After Life." School and 
Society, Vol. 2, pages 229-232. 

Staples, O. B. " Is There a Relation between the Amount of Schooling 
and Financial Success in Life?" Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 10, 
pages 261-269. 

Thorndike, E. L. "The Future of the College Entrance Examination 
Board." Educational Review, Vol. 31, pages 470-483. 

Woodhtjll, J. F. " General Science." Educational Review, Yol. 48, pages 
298-300. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Nine 

The tendency in modern education is imquestionably toward the 
concrete and the practical. 

The concrete is found in real experience and in actual situa- 
tions. The practical contributes to both work and leisure. 
Educational reformers have advocated the concrete. 
Life outside of school lays claim to the practical. 
Examples of the demand for the concrete and the practical are 

numerous. 
Schools attempt a response to this social demand. 
Play is introduced. 

Good games are used as devices in teaching the Three R 

subjects of less value. 
This misuse of games becomes an abuse of play. 
Industrial activities are appealed to. 

Hypothetical situations are invented as " practical appli- 
cation." 
Actual industrial situations are organized in terms of 

Three R subjects. 
Such misuse becomes an abuse. 
This response misinterprets the principle, "from the known 

to the unknown." 
Life values are subordinated to school values. 
Educational considerations favor the concrete and the practical. 
The child is interested in the concrete. 
Moral training rests upon the concrete. 
In the concrete the curriculum is made vital. 
Relative values are significant only in the concrete. 
Correlation and organization are simplified in the concrete. 
Retardation is lessened by use of the concrete. 
A curriculum in terms of the concrete need not mean a rejection of 
the subject matter of the Three R's. 



170 



CHAPTER NINE 

The Curriculum in Terms of the Concrete and 
THE Practical 

PRINCIPLE TWO 

The curriculum should he selected directly from real life 
and should he expressed in terms of the activities and the en- 
vironments of -people. 

This principle seems so reasonable and commonplace that 
it is at once regarded as quite in accordance with practice 
in the more progressive schools. It may be observed, how- 
ever, that the facts are quite otherwise. Some portion of 
this chapter must therefore be devoted to showing what is 
a mistaken notion as to the application of this principle in 
our public schools. The chief purpose in this chapter is 
to set forth the reasonableness of a direct study of the con- 
crete and the practical in everyday life, instead of the abstract 
and speculative so characteristic of the traditional curriculum. 
The reader is asked to forget for the time the school subjects, 
reading, writing, arithmetic, language, etc., and to place 
himself in readiness to view the life of the school strictly 
in terms of everyday life out of school. The traditional 
view of elementary education makes this seem almost im- 
possible. The difficulty is lessened to the extent that one is 
able to center attention not on subjects for study, but on boys 
and girls. The argument throughout this book is based 
upon the purpose proposed for elementary education : To 
help hoys and girls do better in all those wholesome activities 
in which they normally engage. 

THE DEMAND FOR THE CONCRETE AND THE PRACTICAL 

The meaning of " concrete " and " practical." The 
tendency in modern education is unquestionably toward 

171 



172 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

the concrete and the practical. There is evidence of a wide- 
spread reaction against empty formahsm and the glittering 
generalities of a school divorced from real life. This reaction 
expresses itself, on the positive side, by emphasizing the 
importance of acquaintance with the concrete world of things 
and the practical affairs of people. 

It is generally presumed that the term " concrete " is 
fairly well understood. No teacher regards " one and one 
are two " as concrete. But " one apple and one apple are 
two apples " is in textbooks and in class work quite generally 
treated as concrete. Authors and teachers thus intend to 
facilitate the arithmetical problem by giving it an objective 
reference in the term " apple." In this way denominate 
numbers are commonly regarded as concrete arithmetic in 
contrast to abstract work in general fractions. 

Language work on the tense of verbs is regarded by 
teachers as concrete if sentences are constructed from the 
experience of the pupils, e.g., I write my spelling lesson; I 
wrote my spelling lesson ; I have written my spelling lesson. 
The geography of the Mississippi River system is thought 
concrete if a miniature of this system is constructed on the 
sand table. But there is a seriously erroneous idea in all 
this intended concreteness. Such details of arithmetic, 
language, and geography are properly concrete only when 
they function in the real experience of people, when that 
experience is of primary importance and these details of 
arithmetic, language, and geography are instruments in 
contributing to the effectiveness of that experience. A boy 
has an actual experience with apples not in an arithmetic 
class, but in a fruit store. He ate one apple and gave his 
little brother one. He reports this to his teacher. Now, 
" one apple that I ate and one apple that I gave to my 
brother are the two apples I bought at the fruit store " 
becomes strictly concrete. Similarly, in a report to teacher 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 173 

or parent that the pupil wrote his spelHng lesson, or that 
extensive agriculture in the Mississippi Valley is due to 
that great river system, the tense of the verb and the geo- 
graphical reference become strictly concrete. Arithmetic, 
language, and geography cannot be made concrete by 
arbitrary application to hypothetical cases, or, indeed, to 
real experience. " Concrete arithmetic " is a misnomer. 
There is no " concrete language " as a school subject. Even 
most of the geography is far from being concrete. Only 
in real experience and in natural phenomena can teacher 
and pupil find the concrete. This statement does not 
identify the concrete and the objective. An intellectual 
act is truly concrete ; for example, the young trapper puzzled 
seriously how to insnare that coon alive. In short, in 
practically none of the traditional school curricula can one 
find the concrete. The concrete is found only in real ex- 
perience and in natural phenomena.^ 

The term " practical " is not used here in the narrow 
bread-and-butter sense. Earning capacity and inclination 
stamp a man as practical. But the ability and inclination 
to use well his earnings in work or in leisure are no less 
indicative of the practical man. Latin and music, if they 
contribute appreciably to wholesome leisure, are as practical 
as science and mathematics when used to increase the earn- 
ing power of men. 

Associated together, the concrete and the practical in 
education have reference to the definite everyday world of 
things and lives of people. Thus this demand for the con- 
crete and practical in modern education is only an insistence 
that school work be very intimately associated with real 
situations in the everyday life of people. 

^ Compare Dewey, J., Article on "Concrete and Abstract," in Monroe's 
Cyclopedia of Education; How We Think, pages 135-144; Eliot, C. W., The 
Concrete and Practical in Education, pages 7-22 ; McMurry, F. M., State- 
ment in Teachers College Record, Vol. 4, No. 2, page 6. 



174 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Educational reformers and the concrete. At the very 
beginning of the sixteenth century Rabelais opposed the 
extreme scholastic formalism of the Middle Ages. Words 
had been exalted over things; learning was a process of 
mere memorizing; reasoning was extremely formal. There 
was a contempt for the study of the actual behavior of men 
in the pursuits of life.. Rabelais opposed all this by de- 
manding an education " which appeals to experience and to 
facts, which trains the young man, not only for the discussion 
of the schools, but for real life, and for intercourse with the 
world. . . ." ^ Somewhat more than a century later Locke 
felt called upon to react upon the formal instruction of his 
times and advocate studies that contributed directly to 
the preparation for life. He asked for more attention to 
the mother tongue as a means of communication; for 
geography as an exercise of eyes and memory; for arith- 
metic as of general use in all phases of life. In less than 
another century Rousseau strengthened the tendency during 
these three centuries by the publication of his Emile. 
" There is a choice in the things which ought to be taught 
as well as in the time fit for learning them. Of the knowl- 
edges within our reach, some are false, others are useless, 
and still others serve to nourish the pride of him who has 
them. ... It is not a question of knowing what is, but 
only what is useful." ^ An education in the real things of 
life was his claim. In recent years no one has spoken more 
forcibly in favor of studying the real things of life than John 
Dewey. " The child is already active, and the question 
of education is the question of taking hold of his activities, 
of giving them direction." ' These men have contributed 
greatly to the tendency to study the concrete, everyday 
affairs of life. 

1 Payne, W. H., Compayri's History of Pedagogy, page 92. 

2 Rousseau, J. J., ^mile. ' School and Society (1915 edition), page 37. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 175 

Out-of-school and the practical. In present practice the 
traditional curriculum, so commonly used throughout the 
schools, is much less related to real life than is usually sup- 
posed by those who are the teachers and directors of the 
schools. We learn in school to read. The emphasis in all 
the early stages where the masses are found is upon oral 
reading. But in life out of school oral expression is a com- 
paratively small part in reading. In school we learn to 
read " lessons " assigned. Out-of-school life presents the 
problem of wise selection, of reading silently, but rapidly, 
omitting portions, thoughtfully considering other portions. 
Daily papers, periodicals, and current literature present this 
need. School reading is too little directed to such practical 
need. Texts in arithmetic are classifications of quantitative 
problems and exercises. An arithmetic is a cross section 
of experience on the quantitative level. We do not ex- 
perience fractions in ordinary life. We occasionally have 
an experience which calls for calculation by the use of a 
fraction. In real life attention is directed to particular 
experiences which, when associated with many other such, 
lead to the so-called " general notion " — a mere abstraction 
from experience. So geography, language, and spelling do 
not deal with real life; they are all mere cross sections of 
many experiences on their respective levels. 

Usage has virtually reduced the commonly accepted cur- 
riculum to a great piece of formalism. It is indeed com- 
parable to the formalism against which Rabelais, Locke, and 
other realists fought. Pupils may be rapid and accurate in 
arithmetical exercises, but be ignorant of the real business sit- 
uations where such principles are most applicable. Just such 
is the frequent complaint on the part of those who employ 
boys and girls educated m public schools. Pupils pass exam- 
inations in language, composition, and grammar, but in the 
office they are unable to adapt language to the business in hand. 



176 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

It is because elementary education has fallen so far behind 
our industrial development that a change in the curriculum 
is demanded. The demand is for better economy and for 
greater efficiency. It is a demand that the school as a 
social institution be in greater harmony with the life which 
it is intended to serve. The strongest demand is for trade 
schools, technical schools, vocational guidance, and the like. 
Comparatively little has as yet been demanded of the usual 
elementary school, especially below the upper grades. But 
the demand is clearly indicating a change in the nature of 
the work lower down. The demand for more attention to 
vocational interests is a real demand for the concrete and 
practical in school work. 

EXAMPLES OF THIS DEMAND 

Rabelais, Locke, Rousseau, and others of historic record 
have protested against empty formalism and have insisted 
upon giving attention to things of real life. In the im- 
mediate present there are a variety of agencies instituting 
reactions against traditional formalism and making strong 
demands that the education of youth be more in tune with 
real life. 

Space forbids presenting here illustrations of these de- 
mands. A few may be merely named. The Committee 
on Need of Investigation of the Culture Element and 
Economy of Time in Education, appointed by the National 
Education Association in 1903, has made a number of re- 
ports in which this demand is clearly expressed or implied.^ 
The Minneapolis Vocational Survey, made in 1913, led to a 
demand that school work be provided with vocational 
motive. The Consumers' League of Hartford, Connecticut, 

1 National Education Association, 1908, pages 466-478 ; 1911, pages 222- 
226; 1913, pages 217-246; 1914, pages 206-222. Bureau of Education 
Bulletin, No. 38, 1913. ,. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 177 

in 1911 sought to influence the schools to fit children for 
trade, commercial, and domestic life. The Massachusetts 
Commission on Industrial Education, in 1906, expressed this 
demand in the words of its chairman, Paul H. Hanus : 
" Heretofore, we have planned the work of our public schools 
almost entirely with reference to ' culture ' ; we have done 
very little to stimulate a vocational purpose and still less 
to provide for the realization of that purpose." The City 
Club of Chicago in 1909 directed their Committee on Public 
Education to make an extended inquiry on vocational train- 
ing. In various parts of the country parents are calling 
upon the schools to allow credit for home work. 

Only a very few examples of the demands for school work 
more directly and closely related to life work have been 
given. ^ Evidence of a more restricted nature may be found 
in the tendency in most schools to introduce — or increase 
if already introduced — courses in manual training, do- 
mestic science, commercial subjects, etc. 

Such is some of the evidence of the call for a curriculum 
more concrete — more specifically directed to real life 
activities. The demands of the business man must be re- 
spected. It is the duty of the educator to respond by ad- 
justing the school to meet such demands. In these ex- 
pressions by business men and organizations there is very 
little suggestion of details in the solution of such a problem. 
This task belongs to the educators. The Consumers' 
League of Connecticut is probably right in asserting that 
" in our country it is not the schools that have initiated 
educational reforms, but the urgent call of the people." 
It seems reasonable to expect that the school leaders should 
be such students of social and industrial progress that they 

^ For further examples, see Leavitt, F. M., Examples of Industrial Edu- 
cation; Report on Vocational Training, 1912, City Club of Chicago ; Cooley, 
E. G., Vocational Education in Europe; recent reports of the United States 
Commissioner of Education. 



178 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

can foresee many of the coming demands and make pro- 
vision. But it must be admitted that the schools are tardy 
in responding to the initial demands made by the people. 
It must also be recognized that this demand for the con- 
crete is by no means universal, and comparatively few schools 
have as yet responded. The tendency is evident, and the 
strength of this tendency cannot be slightingly overlooked. 

RESPONSE OF THE SCHOOLS TO THE SOCIAL DEMAND 

Misuse of play. Quite in compliance with these demands 
for education more closely related to real life, schools and 
individual teachers have made an earnest effort to intro- 
duce into their work the changes called for. Without doubt 
a great deal of good has been thus accomplished. But it 
must be pointed out how most of these efforts in the ele- 
mentary schools have been seriously inconsistent. The 
industrial world has asked in the clearest of terms that the 
schools bring the youth into a better knowledge and appre- 
ciation of the practical life about them. The schools answer 
with the very best intent, by using portions from real life 
as means of teaching the very subject matter which has 
become so divorced from real life. The industrial world 
makes no complaint, for it is unable to understand what is 
being done and fully believes that school pupils are re- 
ceiving instruction that is much in advance of the traditional 
work and in accordance with progressive movements. A 
few typical illustrations will make clear the inconsistency in 
much of present practice. 

Take the first illustrations from the realm of so-called 
" play " in instruction. In recent years we have been led 
to recognize the potency of play in child development. Play 
is normal with children. True play in youth is the fore- 
runner of work in adult life. But play is not primarily an 
instrument in development. It is one phase of life, in both 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 179 

infancy and adult life.^ A few illustrations of the use of 
play in instruction will show the misuse to which it is put. 

Two phases of this use of games may be noted. First, 
the use of well-known games which have been used for some 
time as means of recreation and enjoyment without any 
relation whatever to their educational value. They have 
been in use for real fun ; they are now put to use as instru- 
ments in school studies. Second, the invention of games 
which in themselves are not so full of fun, but show clearly 
that they have been arranged primarily as instruments in 
the school studies. 

Baseball is the characteristically American game. Little 
boys play it — and quite skillfully. College girls play at it 
with considerable vigor. Professionals make it their sum- 
mer work. To both players and audience baseball is a great 
game, affording to all an enjoyment equaled by scarcely 
another form of sport. The following is the reported use 
made of this game. 

Baseball 
Preparation for the game : 

1. Selection and making two copies of problems, one for the pitcher, 
the other for the umpire (teacher). 

2. Choosing of team and team names by the children. 

Scheme of game : 

Captains compete on problems to decide which team has first "bats." 
The first correctly finished wins "bats" for his team. Captains choose at 
signal, " Play ball." The successful captain then works on paper, competing 
with the batter at board, who is also competing with the catcher. If the 
batter is the first one finished and correct, he passes on to "first," where he 
competes with the first baseman and the right fielder at the same time 
that another of his team is working at bats. If the batter is not the first 
one finished and correct, he has been put out. Three outs means change 
of teams at bats and two changes make an inning. A "run" consists of a 
player having successfully passed the third base and counts 1 for his team. 

^ See Chapter FourteeQ for further discussion of this. 



180 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Comparative Table 

Table of Baseball Formal Drill 

Problem worked in game : 

(Number op Problems) 
First game, 7 ) 

Second game, 9 > Average, 8| problems per game 
Third game, 10 J 

Problems in formal drill : 

Average, 4f per day 

This means, of course, that 8f problems were correctly worked by differ- 
ent pupils, during the game, those who were running for their team, as op- 
posed to an average of 4| for each child during the formal drill. However, 
by the time of the third game all the children were working all the problems, 
which gave each child ten problems during that hour.^ 

This game was used in the State Normal School of Los 
Angeles, California, under the direction of Myrtie Collier, 
teacher of mathematics. The aim of the experiment was, 
" (1), to plk)ve that more ground may be covered than is 
required by our course of study, (2), to determine the effects 
of plays and games in arithmetical drill." On the second 
of these purposes the training-teacher comments : " During 
this period all the children took an active part in the arith- 
metic games, which were carefully and skillfully carried out 
by the teacher in charge. The interest was keen and the chil- 
dren worked hard and cheerfully when a game was in view." 

Another example of a similar use of a well-known game is 
suggestive. 

We played parcheesi as a help in adding, and, best of all, used dice to 
learn to count quickly. We began by throwing two dice at a time. Wini- 
fred threw first and if the upturned faces happened to be "six" and "one" 
she would add the two together (at first by actually counting the spots) 
and say she had seven spots. . . . ^ 

1 Mathews, Pauline, Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 14, pages 320-321. 
See this article for other such games. 

'^ Stoner, Winifred, Natural Education, page 130. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 181 

Extensive use is now being made of such games as bean 
bags, marbles, tenpins, etc., to 'provide opportunity for studies 
in number. " What a good device for teaching ! The 
pupils are learning numbers without knowing it." Such is 
the frequent comment by the observer who does not analyze 
closely either the spirit of the pupils or the nature of the 
so-called game. Close analysis of the game and of the real 
spirit of the pupils is not expected. In such cases attention 
of both teacher and observer is directed to the " number 
work " involved. The game is only a method, a device. 

Such use of the game is a real abuse of the game. This 
criticism is, of course, upon the assumption that the game 
is regarded as originally an activity of genuine play. If 
by game is meant a mere device, criticism may be made 
upon its use just as criticism may be made upon a great 
variety of devices used in school. Discussion of the use of 
devices will be given in Chapter Eighteen. Here the question 
is that of using an activity primarily for fun as an instrument 
in teaching to pupils subjects which, to them at least, are of 
little concern. In the baseball game as used above, boys, 
and girls too, will readily see how the popular game has 
been twisted out of shape. Indeed the baseball devotee 
would not recognize the game. As a device nearly twice the 
amount of ground was covered by this " method " when 
compared with work done by formal drill. Interest, too, 
was keen and the children worked hard when a game was in 
view. It must be insisted that the question of relative 
values has not been duly considered. A genuinely en- 
joyable game is of much more value — as a phase of normal 
life — than the " arithmetic " or " geography " taught 
through the game. Care should be taken not to use as an 
instrument that which is in itself of greater value than the 
thing sought through its use. Our traditional esteem for 
these old formal subjects makes this viewpoint difficult to 



182 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

accept. But when we face the growing child and note the re- 
lation of his environment and his activity to that growth, the 
whole question of relative values takes on quite another aspect. 

Of yet more abuse — to the pupils this time — is the use 
of so-called games devised to serve as instruments in instruc- 
tion. Such games are, probably, more numerous than games 
of intrinsic fun value. These devised games are not prop- 
erly of fun value ; their primary value is as a device. 

By reason of the attention given to " The Montessori 
Method," an illustration is taken from that work. 

One of our most interesting discoveries was made in the effort to devise 
a game through which the children might, without effort, learn to read 
words. We spread out upon one of the large tables a great variety of toys. 
Each one of them had a corresponding card upon which the name of the toy 
was written. We folded these little cards and mixed them up in a basket, and 
the children who knew how to read were allowed to take turns in drawing 
these cards from the basket. Each child had to carry his card back to his 
desk, unfold it quietly, and read it mentally, not showing it to those about 
him. He then had to fold it up again, so that the secret which it contained 
should remain unknown. Taking the folded card in his hand, he went to 
the table. He had then to pronounce clearly the name of a toy and present 
the card to the directress in order that she might verify the word he had 
spoken. The little card thus became current coin with which he might 
acquire the toy he had named. For, if he pronounced the word clearly and 
indicated the correct object, the directress allowed him to take the toy, 
and to play with it as long as he wished. 

When each child had had a turn, the directress called the first child 
and let him draw a card from another basket. This card he read as soon 
as he had drawn it. It contained the name of one of his companions who 
did not yet know how to read, and for that reason could not have a toy. 
The child who had read the name then offered to his little friend the toy 
with which he had been playing. We taught the children to present these 
toys in a gracious and polite way, accompanying the act with a bow. In 
this way we did away with every idea of class distinction, and inspired the 
sentiment of kindness toward those who did not possess the same blessings 
as ourselves. This reading game proceeded in a marvelous way. The 
contentment of these poor children in possessing even for a little while such 
beautiful toys can be easily imagined. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 183 

But what was my amazement, when the children, having learned to un- 
derstand the written cards, refused to take the toys ! They explained that 
they did not wish to waste time in playing, and, with a species of insatiable 
desire, preferred to draw out and read the cards one after another ! 

I watched them, seeking to understand the secret of these souls, of whose 
greatness I had been so ignorant ! As I stood in meditation among the eager 
children, the discovery that it was knowledge they loved, and not the silly 
game, filled me with wonder and made me think of the greatness of the 
human soul ! ^ 

Two illustrations may be taken from the writings of one 
who has attracted considerable attention by her advocacy 
of " natural education." 

I found a Japanese computer of much use in teaching Winifred to add 
and subtract quickly. We would play that General Washington and Lord 
Cornwallis had two divisions of soldiers and an invincible bullet sent one of 
Cornwallis' soldiers into oblivion (or right of the frame). Winifred would 
quickly tell me how many soldiers remained and thus we would add new 
men or take others away, keeping her attention on the adding and sub- 
tracting process. In order to remember the mathematical names applied 
to the different parts in a question of subtraction, we would make the 
great General Minuend fight with poor Major Subtrahend and the men who 
were left on the battle field were called the poor little remainder. Thus 
Winifred's first ideas of addition and multiplication came to her through 
working with real objects. ^ 

In such games as this Winifred was not allowed to play 
more than fifteen minutes at a time " because mathematical 
play is the most strenuous of all educational games." 

I have invented a geography card game with up-to-date questions con- 
cerning the happenings in various countries and we often play this game 
with her father in the evenings. There is always some nice prize waiting for 
the winner, and we all play with zest. Her father tries to win the game from 
me and I from him, while Winifred strives to get ahead of both parents. 

1 have made a number of games to teach nearly all the branches after 
the plan of this geography game. . . .^ 

^ Montessori, M., The Montessori Method, pages 299-300. 

2 Stoner, Winifred, Natural Education, pages 134-135. 

^ Ibid., page 94. Consult Mrs. Stoner 's book for a number of such games. 



184 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

In the year 1910-1911 the author visited many schools 
in Germany, principally in Berlin and Munich. He looked 
in vain for games used well in school. In the parks and 
gardens too frequently appeared the signs, " Kein Spiel- 
platz," " Kinderwagen Verboten." But at length one 
teacher was found who claimed she conducted games as 
real school work. For the observer's special benefit she 
interrupted her regular work and proceeded with the game. 
She took from her desk some splints of wood. She passed 
up and down the aisles giving to each pupil one splint. 
These splints were left in irregular order upon the pupils' 
desks. The teacher took a position in front of the pupils. 
She stood very erect and began telling of the great German 
army. In the morning the soldiers appear in their uni- 
forms, they look so fresh, so strong ; they stand erect. She 
paused in her story. Each pupil took his splint and placed 
it with great care on his desk perpendicular to the lower 
edge. The teacher passed about correcting those pupils 
whose splints did not well represent the erect position of the 
soldiers. The teacher then returned to her position in 
front. She told of the long forced marches the soldiers 
were obliged to take. In the dust and heat, without suflBcient 
food and drink, they became very tired. As her story pro- 
gressed, the teacher's position became less erect, and her 
voice lowered and weakened. She paused. Each pupil 
took his splint and laid it horizontal to the edge of the desk. 
The soldiers had lain down to rest. The teacher than came 
to her visitor saying : " Now do not go back to America 
and say we do not play in our German schools." 

In the Teachers College Record for November, 1912, is 
given a list of thirty-eight games. In the paragraph pre- 
ceding this list is the statement, " In the list which follows 
there are some games which are made to serve this arith- 
metical purpose. . . . The ingenuity of the teacher will 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 185 

enable her to make others of similar character which es- 
pecially fit her needs." ^ Note in this connection only two 
games from this list. 

Fractions. The teacher has two cards on which are fractions, and the 
children add these fractions in turn. If the answer is correct, but is not in 
its lowest terms, the pupil gets one of the fractions ; if it is reduced to lowest 
terms, he gets both. This can be applied to other processes. 

Simon says, " Thumbs up." One pupil acts as the leader. Each of the 
other players is numbered and takes the position of thumbs up. The 
leader says, "Simon says 15." The thumbs of 3 and 5 (the factors) must 
go down. "Simon says 12," 2, 3, 4, and 6 must go down. A penalty may 
be given for failure.^ 

There may rightly be full sympathy with the teachers 
who meet situations which seem to compel them to invent 
such games. The situation is merely that of subject matter 
and pupil that do not readily unite. What device will 
accomplish this.^* A game might serve better than a prize 
of some kind. None of the usual games played affords 
just the opportunity needed. A game is invented. But, 
as in the typical cases above, such games lack the fun ele- 
ment that makes them real games. One of the above 
games was referred to by the teacher as " silly." Games 
may be quite accurately tested by the extent to which they 
are voluntarily played by children out from under the in- 
fluence of teacher or school. To what extent do children, 
of their own accord, read slips to secure toys ; to what ex- 
tent do they play " fractions " or " Simon says ' 15 ' " ? 
The game may be further tested within the schoolroom. 
Watch carefully the responsiveness of the pupils. As soon 
as interest lessens something is wrong. The probability 
is that the teacher is endeavoring to get more arithmetic or 
geography than naturally belongs to the game. This occurs 

^ Teachers College Record, 1912, No. 5, pages 7-9. 
^ Ibid., page 11. 



186 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

very early in any game which has been devised not for fun 
but for instruction. 

Another reason for this misuse of the game is the notion 
that elementary schooling should be made pleasant. This 
mistaken notion is not of recent origin. " The Ancients 
moulded toothsome dainties into the forms of the letters, 
and thus, as it were, made children swallow the alphabet." ^ 
This " gingerbread method " was practiced in the eighteenth 
century by Basedow, who said, " our methods make studies 
only one third as long and thrice as agreeable." Locke, 
in the seventeenth century, believed in making methods of 
teaching attractive to the pupils. He said : " They may be 
taught to read, without perceiving it to be anything but a 
sport and play themselves into that which others are whipped 
for." 2 

Later Pestalozzi and Froebel saw play quite differently. 
The idea of Locke and Basedow seems to have more influence 
now than that of Pestalozzi and Froebel, who regarded play 
of more importance as a phase of normal development than 
as a sop to induce pupils to study. " Have made problems 
bearing on games, as, so many boys played a score game : 
imagine scores made by different boys and girls and make 
problems." ' 

Thus play is too frequently used as a sugar-coating for the 
bitter pills in the usual school work. When thus used it 
is misused as a game. But the censure should be directed 
against the misuse and abuse of the game, not against play 
as a real part of school.* 

The game is a natural right of children. When used in 
school as a phase of normal development — which is a large 
phase in childhood — it carries with it much instruction. 

^ Payne, W. H., CompayrS's History of Pedagogy, page 90. 

* Ibid., page 206. ^ Ladies' Home Journal, February, 1913, page 46. 

* Compare C. M. Gayley, Idols, pages 113-118. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 187 

Competition is keen in baseball, marbles, tenpins, etc., 
if those games are played primarily for fun. There is scarcely 
any such competition when the primary object is addition 
or the multiplication table, or reading names, or acquiring 
geographical information. And pupils in school are not 
easily fooled. There is some novelty in an " arithmetic 
game," but the novelty is soon gone when fun is not inherent 
in the game. The traditional curriculum is a serious course 
of study. The attempt to use the game as an instrument 
will abuse the game more than help in studying the traditional 
subjects. The game has its place in school occupations, 
because it is a phase of the normal life of children. Its 
proper place in school will be pointed out later.^ 

Misuse of industries. A second example of the misuse 
of experience in instruction may be taken from the more 
serious side of life, viz., vocational activities. Here is a 
field universally recognized as of practical concern. How- 
ever, the traditional curriculum has been regarded as having 
general application in all phases of life to the extent that it 
serves when needed in these vocational activities. But 
the present demand for a closer relation between school 
and real life has led school officials to make an earnest attempt 
to give more attention to various phases of life outside of 
school. The attempt, however, has reached scarcely further 
than the point of using vocational activities as instruments 
in teaching the traditional subjects. Such use is really a 
misuse. 

This misuse appears in two aspects. First, hypothetical 
cases are invented with the honest intention of transforming 
the abstract problems in the traditional subjects into con- 
crete problems expressed in terms of real life. Second, 
actual industrial activities are organized about some phase 
of the traditional subjects as a basis. 

^ See Chapter Fourteen. 



188 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The first aspect is illustrated in many of our school texts. 
In arithmetic there is found the " if " problem. The hare 
and hound problem used on page 165 is an excellent illus- 
tration — a purely hypothetical case, with the " if " implied. 

" If a field is 320 rods long and 210 rods wide, how many 
feet of wire will it take to inclose the field, using four strands ?" 
A sixth-grade boy in a frontier school in Arizona pointedly 
commented on such problems : " The teacher can't fool us 
with such problems. She just makes them up. We kids 
know there are no such fields; what's the use of working 
the problems? " 

In English grammar the chief object is to inform the 
pupils on the structure of the English language. This is 
a difficult task, for boys and girls do not seem to be greatly 
interested in such a study. The author of the text recog- 
nizes this and seeks to relieve the situation by selecting 
sentences from well-known quotations or commonplace 
sayings. It is assumed that these quotations and sayings 
relate directly to real life. " He makes no friend who never 
makes a foe " is selected as an instrument in studying the 
pronoun.^ The pronoun element is not the chief difficulty 
nor the greatest value in this statement. Real life is subor- 
dinated to serve a mere form in language. 

The copy-book writing lessons in which pithy statements 
are copied over and over are clearly of this type. The 
hypothesis is this : We should learn to write well and we 
shall do this better if we write what is really valuable in 
thought, e.g., " Might makes right." -{ 

In drawing lessons we suppose the juicy apple, the fragrant 
flowers, the live frog, are more " practical " than pictures or 
casts, as models. 

These hypothetical cases are judged of more value be- 
cause they are supposed to be concrete and practical. In 
1 Milne, J. M., An English Grammar, page 130. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 189 

so far as the pupils do really pretend that these cases are 
real they probably are assisted somewhat in their study. 
But this influence must be very inconsiderable. Pupils are 
by nature too frank and honest to be thus fooled. Pupils 
respond to such hypothetical cases much as they do to the 
usual rule, principle, and drill exercises of schoolroom work. 
This is largely a perfunctory response. 

A much greater misuse of vocational interests is found 
just where a greater use is intended. This is in the organiza- 
tion of real activities to serve as methods of teaching the 
formal and abstract school subjects. One of the best illus- 
trations of this is the admirable effort of an Illinois superin- 
tendent to make his school work vital. This particular 
instance seems typical. 

" The Mathematics of Arithmetic as an Instrument in 
Solving Life's Problems " was the title of a paper presented 
by H. A. Bone, once superintendent at Batavia, Illinois, 
at a meeting of the Superintendents' and Principals' As- 
sociation of Northern Illinois, at Dekalb, May 1, 1914.^ 

"... The purpose of learning the mathematics of arith- 
metic is to use it as an instrument in the solution of life's 
problems. . . . One of the first problems of the teacher is 
to make a survey of the lives of his pupils and of the life of 
his community to find situations which involve the mathe- 
matics of arithmetic. Such a survey of almost any com- 
munity would reveal problem material from four main 
sources : 

1. Experiences of Children in the Schoolroom^} 

(a) Games . . . ^ 

(b) Apportioning of school supplies . . . 

(c) Reports of the school . . . 
{d) Counting time . . . 

^ See Report of Committee of Seven on an outline of a Course of Study 
on a Scientific Basis, Ninth Year Book, 1914. 
* Space does not permit inserting details here. 



190 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

2. Experiences of Children Outside the Schoolroom 

(a) Marketing . . . 

(b) Vocational problems of children ... 

(c) Disposition of allowance . . . 

(d) Avocations . . . 

3. Experiences in the Home which Affect the Lives of Children 

(a) The family income ... 

{h) Supplementary family enterprises . . . 

4. Enterprises of the Community and Occupational Problems 

(a) Taxes . . . 

(b) Expenditure of school district income . . . 

(c) Expenditure of city income . . . 
{d) Occupations : 

I. Business — Dry goods store • . . 
II. Mechanic arts . . . 
III. Professions . . ." 

After this very suggestive outline with a good but brief 
statement of principles, Superintendent Bone gives a 
" list of problems taken at random from the plan books of 
teachers who are working on the problem of teaching chil- 
dren technique through the solution of problems taken from 
the environment of children." This statement is clearly- 
contradictory to the one above, in which it was maintained 
that the purpose of arithmetic is its use "as an instrument 
in the solution of life's problems." In one case, life's prob- 
lems are a means of studying arithmetic ; in the other case, 
arithmetic becomes the means of solving life's problems. So 
it is in many schools : theory is very plausible, but practice 
falls far short. And very few school men and women see 
the difference. 

The Francis W. Parker School in Chicago is regarded as 
one of the most progressive schools of the country. Great 
attention is given to the study of social and industrial 
activities as found in practical life. " The dynamic value 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 191 

of interest in work is secured by presenting to the pupil 
subjects for study in some relation to his own life and ex- 
perience. He is not asked to consider isolated mathematical 
abstractions, but taught to measure and compare actual 
dimensions and quantities." ^ But the work for the various 
grades is mapped out largely in terms of the traditional 
subjects. For example, under the subject of number, the 
requirements of children leaving the second grade are as 
follows : 

1. All addition and subtraction combinations of numbers to be used. 
Those below twelve automatic. 

2. Reading of numbers to one thousand. 

3. Processes — addition (with carrying) and subtraction (without bor- 
rowing) with numbers of three figures, with the help of objects, e.g., money. 

4. Fractions — one half, one third, one fourth of objects : one half of 
numbers up to twelve. 

5. Standard measures — cent, dime, dollar; cup, pint, quart, gallon; 
inch, foot, yard. 

6. Geometry — accurate ideas of square and rectangle. 

The arithmetical problems presented by nature-study are many; some 
of them are simple and some of them are complicated, and all of them are 
illuminating. Seed distribution especially lends itseK to computation; 
a milkweed pod contains 140 seeds ; there are five such pods on one plant, 
each milkweed plant requires at least one square foot of ground to grow on ; 
how much ground would be required to grow all of the seeds from this one 
plant ? Or, count the seeds in one dandelion head, multiply by the number 
of flower heads on the plant and estimate how many plants can grow on a 
square foot, then ask a boy how long it would take for one dandelion plant 
to cover his father's farm with its progeny. ... As a matter of fact, the 
teacher will find in almost every nature lesson an arithmetic lesson ; and when 
arithmetic is used in this work, it should be vital and inherent and not 
" tacked on." ^ 

These examples illustrate what is found, to a much less 
extent, in a large number of our more progressive elemen- 

1 Catalogue, Francis W. Parker School, 1911-1912, page 5. 
^ Comstock, A. B., Handbook of Nature Study, page 19. 



192 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

tary schools ; i.e., the organization of concrete experience 
about the traditional studies as centers. And this practice 
is supported by the theories of our leading educators. 

Writing upon Mathematics in the Elementary School, 
Professor F. M. McMurry sets forth two " Controlling 
Ideas throughout the Curriculum." " The teacher's first 
aim is the excitement of a deep interest, possibly love, for 
these fields of human experience. . . . When it comes to 
the subject matter, those topics must be chosen which are 
capable of arousing interest. . . . But ... there is . . . 
a second controlling idea for selection. The subject matter 
in each of those studies must reveal some side of life, and do 
it in such a way that the pupil feels forcibly the relation 
between it and practical living." ^ Practical living as a 
normal experience is one thing. Practical living which 
must be revealed by subject matter in some school study is 
probably quite a different thing. 

" The problems in arithmetic, the materials for science 
study, the objects or projects for industrial arts work, the 
concrete interpretative materials for history and geography, 
must come from the local environment, and permit of direct 
adjustment to the children being taught." ^ 

" Arithmetic is taught both for its usefulness in daily life 
and for the training that it gives the mind in reasoning, in 
habits of application, and in exactness of statement. 

" In particular, the daily industries of our people should 
be drawn upon to the making of arithmetic interesting, in- 
formational, practical." ^ 

" An examination of the leading topics in history, geog- 
raphy, literature (reading), elementary science, and mathe- 
matics will bring out the truth that they all spring from 

^ Teachers College Record, Vol. 4, No. 2, pages 2, 3. 

^ Dutton and Snedden, Educational Administration in the United States, 
page 328. 

3 Smith, D. E., Teachers College Record, Vol. 10, No. 1, pages 36-37. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 193 

common sources or centers. In one sense, they are not dis- 
tinct studies, but phases of great topics common to all 
studies. The Revolutionary War, for example, is a common 
center from which history, literature, geography, drawing, 
language, and even mathematics draw important lessons." ^ 
And yet Professor McMurry has elaborated more than any 
author on the organization of these great topics of real life 
in terms of the traditional studies. 

A third aspect of this misuse of experience may be only 
mentioned. It is the situation of allowing too little credit 
— in the field of general education — for experience. A 
farm boy is absent a day or so for " butchering " or for 
harvesting. He is too frequently debited on his school 
account. A boy or girl may by travel or otherwise have a 
really rich experience for a whole year. He falls back one 
grade in school. Probably in neither case are educational 
values adequately weighed. 

But a reaction has appeared in favor of recognizing such 
experience. Credits are allowed for home work. Yet it 
must be also noted that these outside credits are on " studies" 
not considered worth while as a real part of the school 
curriculum. It is, to a large extent, a pretense at making 
the school stand for the practical and concrete in life, whereas 
the real work of the school is quite limited to the traditional 
formal subjects. 

Interpretation of this response. One word may be oiffered 
by way of interpretation of the practices which are here 
opposed. Consciously or not, most teachers make use of 
the Herbartian principle of apperception. " From the 
known to the unknown " has guided many a teacher. The 
general notion as the goal of instruction ^ is quite unknown 
to the pupils, but certain commonplace experiences are 

^ McMurry, C. A., Course of Study in the Eight Grades, page 23. 
2 McMurry, F. M., The Method of the Recitation, pages 51-63. 



194 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM: 

known. These experiences are used as a means of reaching 
(verbally) the goal (as seen by the teacher). Here is the 
source of most of the fads and frills in school methods. 
The misuse of games and industrial activities must be 
classed as fads and frills. Such school practice merits the 
criticism that we are giving the pupils sugar-coated pills. 
Current periodical literature, touching upon schools interests, 
offers just such sugar-coated pills, for example : " The 
making of real problems : Have children collect prices of 
things at the country store. Keep these lists in note-books. 
From them problems involving fundamental operations may 
be made. The child makes his own problem and solves or 
makes problems for another class to solve. Have him make 
an original problem of community interest, as in corn grow- 
ing and selling. Have made a household problem, as regards 
the cost of making rice pudding, cake, fudge, etc. . . ." ^ 

This theory and practice illustrated by the few citations 
above is clearly in line with recent and current demands 
upon the school for greater efficiency. This demand is 
represented by the titles of a few recent books : The Worker 
and the State,^ Educational Readjustment,^ Education for 
Efficiency,^ The Concrete and the Practical in Modern Educa- 
tion,^ School Efficiency Series,^ The People's School,'' Edu- 
cation for Citizenship,^ Village Improvement.^ 

This far-reaching and increasingly insistent demand is 
merely that the schools contribute more directly and more 
potently in making boys and girls more efficient in the real 
activities of life : not brighter scholars in school, but more 
effective workers in whatever they undertake in real life. 
If a more extended and more thorough knowledge of arith- 
metic, grammar, and geography is assuredly the straight 

1 Ladies' Home Journal, February, 1913, page 46. ^ Dean, A. D. 

» Snedden, D. * Eliot, C. W. ; also Davenport, E. 

6 Eliot, C. W. « Hanus, P. H. (editor). ^ Weeks, Ruth. 

8 Kerschensteiner, G. ^ Farwell, P. T. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 195 

road to greater efficiency, their present use should be con- 
tinued. In such a case the logic of the situation would be 
this : John is likely to become manager of a shoe factory, 
or other such industry. He is required to become proficient 
in arithmetic, geography, language. But, to illuminate 
these so-called studies, the boy is provided with problems 
and other isolated bits of information about the shoe factory 
or other industry. Thus, in connection with his study of 
fractions the pupil gets a little of what may be called the 
" arithmetic of the shoe factory " ; in his study of the geog- 
raphy of the New England States he gets some geography 
of the shoe factory. But clearly this industry is not at all 
satisfactorily understood and appreciated in terms of the 
schoolroom studies. 

The tendency in educational theory and practice is decidedly 
in the line of a direct study of the activity — in its own terms 
not in terms of the common school studies. Studies in the 
processes of learning ; studies in the tastes, interests, abilities 
of children ; studies in social problems ; all strengthen the 
natural tendency to attend to the particular things, the 
specific environment with which our adjustment is concerned. 

Life values and school values. In real life, the arith- 
metic, and the geography, of the industry are incidental. 
Ability to compute is an instrument in the hands of the 
manager in directing the industry. Arithmetic is subordi- 
nate to management. The factory is not instituted for the 
purpose of providing opportunity for arithmetical calcu- 
lation. But just this principle is practiced in our present 
school work. The industry is picked to pieces and isolated 
portions used in an effort to illuminate a formal school 
subject of less value. There might arise here a question 
of relative values, but the superiority of the one seems too 
evident to call for discussion. 

What has been presented in this section called the misuse 



196 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

of experience amounts to a real abuse of that experience. 
Present school practice is really humiliating social and 
industrial activities to a position of serving formal studies, 
which in real life are subordinate. This abuse or misuse is 
not so intended by school men and educational leaders. If 
the above analysis is correct, the situation is due to a strong 
conservatism in the community which makes it almost 
impossible to set aside the traditional studies, or to an in- 
difference among school leaders toward an inconsistency 
which allows theory to call for a study of real life but de- 
mands in practice an adherence to the traditional subjects. 
This indifference may be due to a low educational standard 
or to lack of professional courage. 

EDUCATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS FAVOR THE CONCRETE 

In this chapter the position is taken that, in place of 
arithmetic, grammar, geography, and other of the tradi- 
tional subjects, studies should be taken directly from social 
and industrial life and that they should be expressed in 
terms of that life. In other words, it is advocated that 
pupils in the elementary schools study directly their environ- 
ment and the activities of people. This position is thus 
far based upon the evidence that there is an increasing 
demand that American youth be provided with the ability 
to do, not simply to know, and that this demand is made by 
educational organizations, men of affairs, and industrial 
establishments. It has been noted that school officials 
have tried to comply with this demand, but in their effort 
some have misused the activities of real life as mere instru- 
ments in teaching, and others have increased the already 
congested curriculum by adding studies of an industrial 
nature without removing any of the traditional work. 

There are further considerations that support the principle 
that the curriculum should be selected directly from real 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 197' 

life and should be expressed in terms of the activities and 
environments of people. 

The child's interest in the concrete. It is most natural 
that children observe particular events in their experience, 
and particular objects in their environment. A boy returns 
from the circus or the county fair. His report is an un- 
organized enumeration of disconnected details. And yet 
how constantly he uses the little conjunction " and," which 
merely connects the series of individual events narrated. 
He does not generalize upon the various phases of circus or 
fair — he singles out the details. Indeed, this was his 
method of observing and of enjoying. Further evidence of 
the boy's nature to refer to particulars is seen in his defini- 
tions : " Nail is something to put things together." " Open 
is if the door is not closed." " Opera is a house where you 
see men and ladies act." " Quarrel is if you began a little 
fight." " Saw is if you see something, after you see it you 
saw it." " Vain is if you always look in the glass." " A 
knife is to cut meat." " A clock is to see the time." " An 
arm chair is to sit in." " Village means one sees everybody 
pass." ^ 

There are really neither generalizations nor abstractions 
in such definitions. A boy has definite objects of reference. 
Yellow is not a color — in the abstract — but is the color 
of a little dog, a big sunflower, or an orange. 

A fraction is not " one or more of the equal parts into 
which a unity is divided " ; to the boy it is the larger part 
of the apple which the other fellow took. 

All this view of things is perfectly reasonable. In the 
first place, such are the normal experiences which the boy 
is having constantly. He is coming in contact with real 
things. As a youth he is largely an organism for receiving 
sensations from the objective world about him. He sees 
1 Quoted by Chamberlain, A. F., The Child, pages 146, 147. 



198 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

particular objects ; he hears individual sounds ; he feels this 
and that in his experience. Before entering school the boy 
does not think in terms of arithmetic or arithmetical gener- 
alizations. Yet he has many quantitative experiences fully 
understood by him. During school years when he is out of 
school his experience is normally very similar to what it 
was before he went to school. He experiences concrete 
situations. 

Moral training. This interest of the child in the concrete 
is vitally connected with his moral training. There is an 
increasing demand that the school train the youth to act 
uprightly in the community. How is this to be effected? 
In his discussion of some of the principles underlying the 
famous continuation schools of Munich, Kerschensteiner ^ 
points out that whenever the school is asked to undertake 
a new departure, whether intellectual or moral, the school- 
master immediately sets about his work with oral instruction. 
Knowledge of civics is not the school boy's pressing need, 
but acquaintance with civic virtues in particular phases of 
life. Civic instruction as given in the continuation schools 
of Munich was probably not surpassed in any other school. 
It was not only the civic training in the shop work of the 
schools, but also the study of particular phases of social 
and industrial life that made those schools so effective in 
training for citizenship. In the forty-six distinct continua- 
tion schools of Munich " Lebens und Burgerkunde " (knowl- 
edge of life and citizenship) was one of a very few studies 
common to all, though the subject matter differs in the 
various schools. In the school for the interior house deco- 
rator, for example, the purpose in this subject was to afford 
the student an insight into the " satisfactory conduct of life." 

Our older schools have attempted to teach virtues by the 
story with " moral " attached. F. J. Gould, once employed 
1 Kerschensteiner, G., Education for Citizenship, pages 97-110. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 199 

by the Moral Education League of London, has toured this 
country telUng stories intended to give moral ideas which 
he believes will express themselves in action.^ The Golden 
Rule Series ^ gives many stories similar to those contributed 
by Mr. Gould. 

It is interesting to note how the same subject is used to 
teach two lessons. In a little poem by Anna B. Warner 
Daffy-down-dilly is personified making her way into the 
light in early spring. The poem closes with : 

" O Daffy-down-dilly, so brave and so true ! 
I wish all were like you ! — 
So ready for duty in all sorts of weather. 
And loyal to courage and duty together !" ^ 

In another story by Hawthorne Daffy-down-dilly is 
pictured as a little boy " because in his nature he resembled 
a flower and loved to do only what was beautiful and agree- 
able, and took no delight in labor of any kind." Daffy- 
down-dilly's mother sent him away to school. The teacher 
was Mr. Toil. Daffy-down-dilly was so displeased that he 
ran away. After a great many experiences in which he was 
unable to escape this Mr. Toil, he returned to school. He 
had " learned a good lesson, and from that time forward 
was diligent at his task, because he knew that diligence is 
not a whit more toilsome than sport or idleness." ^ 

Whatever influence those stories have in the development 
of moral and civic virtues is probably to be found in the 
concreteness of the experience related in the story. The 
most effective stories are probably those that relate ex- 
periences which are very close to the everyday life of the 

^ See his books : Life and Manners, Stories for Young Hearts and Minds. 

2 A set of readers published by The Macmillan Company. 

3 The Golden Rule Series, Vol. I, pages 23-25. 
* Ibid., Vol. IV, pages 43-57. 



200 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

community in which the children live. But the direct study 
of social and industrial activities brings the pupil face to 
face with moral issues. Here he meets actual conditions, 
not theoretical situations. Under such conditions moral 
fiber is developed.^ 

The vital curriculum. Natural interest in the concrete 
and moral fiber expressed in conduct point to the further 
position that school work can be effective training for real 
life only to the extent that the content of its own work is 
identified with life outside of school. 

The Portland course of study as given in 1912-1913 is 
outlined in fifty -four parts. The work of each half year is 
divided into three parts — or each grade into six parts. 
There are nine grades in the elementary schools. These 
fifty -four parts are divisions of the traditional studies — 
marked off largely by pages in the various texts. In the 
report of the survey of these schools Frank E. Spaulding, 
expert on courses of instruction in this survey, was led to 
point out the characteristics of a " dead " curriculum and 
a " live " one. He refers to this Portland curriculum as 
" vivisected into fifty-four dead pieces." The living curric- 
ulum is " plastic and adaptable, constantly undergoing 
changes in emphasis of its various parts, even to the elimina- 
tion of some entirely and the substitution of others . . . ; 
the living curriculum serves as readily and as well the child 
whose mental processes depend on concrete things, as that 
one who readily grasps abstract ideas ; the living curriculum 
serves the present needs of every pupil, whether those needs 
be the preparation for the next steps that will lead in due 
time through a college preparatory course to college, uni- 
versity, and a professional career, or whether those needs 
are for skill of hand that will enable a youth to support 

^ Compare view of Professor F. C. Sharp, expressed in an article, "A Course 
in Moral Education for the High School," in Religious Education for June, 
1913. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 201 

himself honorably, within a year, by rendering some worthy 
service to the community." ^ 

A great deal is said and written about infusing life into 
the curriculum. Vitalize the arithmetic; arouse interest 
in the reading ; make real the study of geography — such 
are the advices and the injunctions so frequently given to 
the rank and file of teachers. There is apparent in such 
statements an undeniable implication that arithmetic is in 
itself dead ; that reading as such is without interest ; that 
geography as usually presented is not real. There seems to 
be this almost universal assumption : We have these lifeless, 
uninteresting, unreal subjects ; they constitute our school 
curriculum ; the more lifeless, uninteresting, unreal they 
are, the greater is the opportunity of the teacher to show 
tact and ingenuity in teaching. The burden is thrown upon 
method. Method resorts to devices. Some devices are 
much more potent than others. Experience in the school- 
room seems to indicate that one of the most effective devices 
in the " vitalizing " of any " dead " subject is to be found 
in the use of experiences in real life. In many texts these 
experiences are virtually used as applications of principles. 
Concrete activities are now used as a means in instruction. 
Earlier in this chapter such use was referred to as a misuse. 
By such means the traditional subjects are not vitalized — 
at least not for the pupil. Arithmetic has never been live 
in the sense of being a vital part in the natural experience or 
environment of children of school age. Arithmetic consists 
of principles and processes that may assist children in their 
experiences of a quantitative nature. Those experiences 
are vital by nature ; the arithmetic cannot be vitalized. 
The same may be said concerning the other subjects in our 
traditional curriculum. 

^ Survey of the Public School System, City qf Portland, Oregon, 191S, pages 
98, 100. 



202 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The really live curriculum must consist of the real concrete 
activities of life. Here is where thorough consistency 
usually breaks down. The increasing demand for the con- 
crete and practical in education is answered in school practice 
not by a direct study of the concrete and practical in life, 
but by using such only as an instrument in the impossible 
attempt to vitalize the traditional subjects. But how 
reasonable it is to study directly the things about which we 
wish to know more, because such things affect us ! Ap- 
prenticeship schools in various industrial institutions are 
a good illustration. In the apprenticeship school of the 
New York Central Railroad, a boy who anticipates work 
in boiler making, for example, studies : ^ 

Heating rivets, etc 3 to 6 months 

Light sheet-iron work 12 to 15 months 

Flue work 3 to 6 months 

Riveting, chipping, calking, and stay bolt work . . . . 12 to 18 months 

Flanging and laying out 1 to 3 months 

General work 6 to 12 months 

Likewise the merchant studies his mercantile business, 
the manufacturer his industrial business, the engineer his 
engineering business, the farmer his farming business. Men 
of practical affairs study the things of vital concern to them. 

Boys and girls in the elementary school are not yet ready 
to learn a trade ; they are not yet called upon to perfect their 
business. Their needs are of a more elementary and di- 
versified nature. Chapters Thirteen to Sixteen present four 
groups of these activities and Chapter Seventeen outlines 
in some detail a few of these activities. These are the things 
which seem of real consequence to boys and girls of school 
age. They are the things that constitute a " live " curric- 
ulum : live because they vitally affect the everyday experi- 
ence of children. 

^ Report of United States Commissioner of Labor, 1910, page 151. Much 
in this report is very suggestive in this connection. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 203 

Three other considerations support the thesis of this 
chapter. They will be but briefly stated here and more 
fully discussed in Chapter Eleven. 

Relative values. A curriculum in terms of the concrete 
and the practical simplifies the perplexing problem of rela- 
tive value of the formal subjects and also simplifies the 
kindred problem of thoroughness. Discussion of these two 
problems in earlier and in recent years has been almost 
futile by reason of lack of standards of sufficiently funda- 
mental character to warrant conclusions reached. 

Correlation and organization. A curriculum in terms of 
the concrete and the practical very considerably simplifies 
the problem of correlation and organization of school sub- 
jects. The nature of such a curriculum makes correlation 
a problem of normal relationship and reduces organization 
of subject matter to a mere series of topics for study. 

Independence of units of work. A curriculum in terms 
of the concrete and the practical provides for an independ- 
ence of the work of any one year. No one topic is a pre- 
requisite for any other. This means much to the satisfaction 
of pupils who vary from the normal in school and reduces 
to a very minimum the problem of retardation now claiming 
so much attention. 

THE CONCRETE NOT A REJECTION OF THE THREE r's 

In closing this chapter, the reader may be cautioned 
against a possible misinterpretation. A curriculum in 
terms of the concrete and the practical would not mean a 
rejection of arithmetical, geographical, or linguistic subject 
matter in school work. A pupil's understanding of quantity, 
of language, and of geography would probably be more 
extensive and more effective by reason of the stronger 
motive under which this work was done. These are his 
tools in studying real life. This chapter calls for a change 



204 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

in viewpoint. The school should be concerned primarily 
with specific activities in social and industrial life. 

Traditional Three-R subject matter is not to be ruthlessly- 
cut out of the curriculum merely because it is traditional. 
It must be placed on a par with subject matter taken directly 
from real life, in so far as it functions in the equipment 
of boys and girls for community life. However, as has been 
pointed out, the subject matter taken directly from life ac- 
tivities contributes more, and that more directly, to prepara- 
tion for participation in real life than do the traditional 
subjects. That which contributes less must yield to that 
which contributes more in the equipment of children for their 
work and play activities. The relative values of these two 
types of subject matter must be determined by their service 
in real life, and this in turn determines the relative position 
in the curriculum. 

The traditional, formal Three R's are strictly subordinate. 
From the point of view of method, instruction in these formal 
subjects is incidental to instruction in the concrete and 
practical affairs of everyday life. 

Supplementary Readings 

CooLET, E. G. Vocational Education in Europe, pages 11-30, 32&-SS6. 
Davenport, E. Education for Efficiency, pages 11-36, 60-120. 
Densmohe, E. Helping School Children, pages 280-320. 
DuTTON, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administration of Public Education in the 

United States, pages 314-340. 
Eliot, C. W. The Tendency to the Concrete and the Practical in Modern 

Education, pages 1-57. 
Hantjs, p. H. Beginnings of Industrial Education, pages 3-52. 
Kerschensteiner, G. Education for Citizenship, pages 97-110. 
Puffer, J. A. The Boy and His Gang, pages 39-82. 
Report, Bureau of Labor Statistics (New York), 1908, pages 190-242. 
Report, Commissioner of Labor (United States), 1911, pages 377-407. 
Report, Commission on Industrial Education (Massachusetts), 1908, pages 

7-93. 



CURRICULUM IN TERMS OF THE CONCRETE 205 

Robinson, J. H. The New History, pages 132-153. 

Russell, J. E. "The School and Industrial Life." Educational Review, 

Vol. 38, pages 433-450. 
Snedden, D. See Johnston, C. H., The Modem High School, pages 20-41. 
Weeks, Ruth. The People's School, pages 38-56. 

General References 

Babbows, G. H. The History of Springfield for the Young. 
Blackfoot, K. M. H., and Newcomb, A. The Job, the Man, the Boss. 
Dean, A. D. The Worker and the State. 
Eliot, C. W. Education for Efficiency. 
Leavitt, F. M. Examples of Industrial Education. 
McMuRRT, C. A. Course of Study in the Eight Grades. 
Ninth Yearbook Superintendents' and Principals' Associations of North- 
ern Illinois, 1914. 
Puffer, J. A. Vocational Guidance. 
Report on Vocational Training in Chicago, 1912. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Ten 

Though there is no average boy, emphasis is placed upon averages 

and standards. 
Uniformity in the traditional curriculum is conspicuous. 

School subjects, topics, and textbooks are imiform in most 

school systems. 
Recitations and examinations tend to uniformity. 
This uniformity is largely the result of administrative economy. 
This uniformity is harmful to pupils. 
Individual differences are of increasing importance. 

Pupils show striking differences in schoolroom behavior. 
Psychological differences are marked. 

The importance of individual differences is seen in social ad- 
justments. 
Recognition of this importance demands changes in school 
work. 
Various plans have been made to provide for individual differences. 
The elective system is only a partial provision. 
Special and industrial schools do not reach the masses. 
Differentiation in the uniform subjects is inadequate. 
The importance of individual difference calls for a more radical and 
extensive provision. 

Studies in terms of life activities are needed. 
Schoolroom method must be more natural. 
The standard must be the individual's best, not the average 
of the group. 
Effective school work calls for this practical treatment of individual 
differences. 



206 



CHAPTER TEN 

The Curriculum and Individual Differences 

PRINCIPLE THREE 

The curriculum should provide for great scope and flexibility 
to meet individual differences in interests and abilities. 

THE GENERAL SITUATION 

There is no average boy. And yet a great many of our 
studies and reports indicate the behef in such an individual. 
More respectful consideration is paid to the " average " 
pupil than to his superiors or inferiors. He serves as a 
standard. By this standard work is arranged, and by this 
standard the results of work are estimated. This considera- 
tion for the average carries with it a quiet implication that 
if all pupils could rank close to the average, the situation 
would be highly satisfactory.^ Such uniformity on the level 
of the average would gratify teachers. How frequently, 
when such opportunity is offered, does the teacher take pride 
in the uniformity of her class ! Such a group, so well mated, 
works well together, and the teacher is relieved of the trouble 
of perplexing variations of the stronger, the weaker, and 
the diversely inclined. 

But studies in the principles underlying adjustment are 
leading the student to question the advantage of such uni- 
formity. Social and industrial changes call more and more 
for the individual who is specially prepared for a given place 
of opportunity and responsibility. Less credit is thus given 
to uniformity, though it must not be overlooked that people 

^ In Bulletin Number Four of the Courtis Standard Research Tests, Mr. 
Courtis takes the position that the "desired level of ability" is expressed 
in the standard score or the average of attainment in a particular exercise 
engaged in by thousands of pupils. 

207 



208 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

have a large number of adjustments in common. These 
recent studies and these new social demands are making 
vigorous protests against the prevailing thought and custom 
in this educational matter. Uniformity and variation in 
elementary school training become a vital question. 

UNIFORMITY IN THE TRADITIONAL SCHOOL 

It may seem unnecessary to point out evidences of uni- 
formity of school work in the traditional school. Uni- 
formity is often the basis for attacks upon the school; it 
is no less the basis for many compliments. On each side 
there is probably too little appreciation of the nature and 
extent of this character of the traditional school. 

School subjects. The Three R's is the proverbial nick- 
name for the traditional course of study. Readin', 'ritin', 
and 'rithmetic have been prominent in every school for 
generations. An examination of courses of study in various 
cities in this country reveals a striking uniformity in these 
various school systems. Table IV shows the various 
subjects pursued in the eight grades in eleven cities/ 
and the percentages of total time given to each of the 
subjects. 

It is very evident that these eleven cities have practically 
the same subjects in the curriculum. The a, b, c indicate 
slight variations. But these variations are essentially in 
name only, or in organization. The content of the work 
done is not appreciably different in Boston because spelling, 
grammar, and writing are included in language. In three 
cities elementary school science does not appear. Were 
uniformity not so characteristic we might expect more sub- 
jects missing in some cities, and quite other subjects than 
these listed substituted. 

1 Elementary ScJwol Teacher, Vol. 10, page 313, 1910. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 209 



TABLE IV 

School Subjects and Time Assignments 





S5 




1 

6 


s 

o 


1 

5 
O 


2 

a 


ID 
t-t 

O 

^^ 


P 

6 


6 

m 


o 

1 

< 

z 



El 

1 





Reading . . 


26.25 


32.50 


40.26 


17.77 


14.13 


17.80 


17.90 


22.79 


14.50 


30.93 


26.31 


23.74 


Spelling . . . 


a 


6 


b 


5.28 


9.57 


5.33 


6.39 


8.07 


10.70 


5.23 


5.94 


7.06 


Grammar . . 


a 


b 


b 


2.39 


3.25 


2.16 


a 


a 


a 


a 


3.63 


2.85 


Lang., comp.. 


























and suppl. 


























reading . . 


20.14 


b 


b 


7.98 


11.37 


18.03 


10.05 


13.27 


11.20 


10.56 


12.18 


12.75 


Writing . . . 


a 


5.81 


4.88 


5.08 


5.41 


7.86 


11.05 


6.86 


9.66 


3.77 


5.73 


5.71 


Arithmetic . . 


16.41 


13.40 


11.02 


18.60 


18.78 


11.97 


14.98 


14.71 


15.10 


16.59 


16.40 


15.26 


Geog. — hist. . 


10.06 


10.77 


9.65 


16.95 


13.28 


9.66 


11.50 


9.55 


14.10 


12.82 


9.36 


11.60 


Music . . . 


4.47 


4.85 


6.37 


4.79 


4.87 


6.85 


8.18 


6.92 


6.60 


5.38 


5.46 


5.88 


Drawing . . 


6.85 


8.90 


6.95 


4.78 


6.05 


9.45 


9.98 


6.92 


11.50 


4.52 


4.91 


7.34 


Man. train. 


6.15 


4.65 


9.85 


7.83 


2.16 


2.16 


2.38 


6.23 


c 


1.80 


4.73 


4.79 


Phys. training. 


























physiol., and 


























hygiene . . 


7.09 


13.05 


5.17 


6.57 


7.40 


8.65 


5.32 


4.61 


4.00 


5.23 


6.31 


6.58 


Elem. sch. sci. . 


2.51 


6.01 


5.80 


1.99 


3.79 




2.92 




3.11 


3.11 




3.65 



a, included in language ; b, included in reading ; c, included in drawing. 

This uniformity in subjects is striking, but it is yet more so 
when account is taken of the relative time devoted to the 
various subjects. For the sake of closer comparison between 
the eleven cities, Table IV is rearranged slightly by dis- 
tributing the time so that a, b, c have time percentages 
assigned.^ This gives Table V. 

In commenting upon Table IV, Elson and Bachman 

assert : " There is considerable variation, it will be observed, 

in the value accredited the same subject in different cities. 

. . ."^ But this variation is not so great as may at first 

appear. In Table IV Chicago allows 40.26 per cent of 

scheduled time to reading against 14.13 per cent allowed 

in Cincinnati. But include in the latter case spelling, 

^ This is done by distributing the percentage of time according to the 
average per cent given in the right-hand column. 
* Elementary School Journal, Vol. 10, page 313. 



210 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



grammar, language, composition, and supplementary read- 
ing, as in Chicago, and Cincinnati is credited with 38.32, 
which is close to 40.26. Inasmuch as all of the reading, 
writing, and other language subjects are in most schools 
considerably correlated, it is just to combine all of these 
for comparison of time devoted by these eleven cities. 
This combination gives Table VI. 

TABLE V 

School Subjects and Time Assignments 



^- 


i 

o 
M 




o 
o 

5 


i 

s 


1 

1 


IS 

i 


m 

B 
& 


I 


13 

O 

m 
■< 




1 


1 


Reading . . 


26.25 


16.61 


20.62 


17.77 


14.13 


17.80 


17.90 


22.79 


14.50 


30.93 


26.31 


23.74 


Spelling . . . 


5.01 


4.94 


6.12 


5.28 


9.57 


5.33 


6.39 


8.07 


10.70 


5.23 


5.94 


7.06 


Grammar . . 


2.02 


2.00 


2.47 


2.39 


3.25 


2.16 


1.82 


2.44 


2.05 


1.94 


3.63 


2.85 


Lang., comp., 


























and suppl. 


























reading . . 


9.04 


8.92 


11.05 


7.98 


11.37 


18.03 


9.98 


10.83 


9.18 


8.58 


12.18 


12.75 


Writiiig . . . 


4.04 


5.81 


4.88 


5.08 


5.41 


7.86 


11.05 


6.86 


9.66 


3.77 


5.73 


5.71 


Arithmetic . . 


16.41 


13.40 


11.02 


18.60 


18.78 


11.97 


14.98 


14.71 


15.10 


16.59 


16.40 


15.26 


Geog. — hist. . 


10.06 


10.77 


9.65 


16.95 


13.28 


9.66 


11.50 


9.55 


14.10 


12.82 


9.36 


11.60 


Music . . . 


4.47 


4.85 


6.37 


4.79 


4.87 


6.85 


8.18 


6.92 


6.60 


5.38 


5.46 


5.88 


Drawing . . 


6.85 


8.90 


6.95 


4.78 


6.05 


9.45 


9.98 


6.92 


7.16 


4.52 


4.91 


7.34 


Man. train. . 


6.15 


4.65 


9.85 


7.83 


2.16 


2.16 


2.38 


6.23 


4.34 


1.80 


4.73 


4.79 


Phys. training, 


























physiol., and 


























hygiene . . 


7.09 


13.05 


5.17 


6.57 


7.40 


8.65 


5.32 


4.61 


4.00 


6.23 


5.31 


6.58 


Elem. Sch. sci. 


2.61 


6.01 


6.80 


1.99 


3.79 




2.92 




3.11 


3.11 




3.65 



TABLE VI 

Reading, Writing, and Language Combined 







o 

o 
■< 
o 

s 


a 

o 
o 


g 

o 


2 
J 
o 

a 


m 

B 

o 


M 

P 


o 


S 


g 


46.39 


38.31 


45.14 


38.50 


43.73 


51.18 


45.39 


50.99 


46.06 


50.49 


53.79 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 211 

The uniformity which is signiiScant is this: the various 
cities devote approximately the same relative amount of 
time to the various subjects. We do not find one school 
devoting a large portion of time to spelling, or a small 
portion to reading. No school devotes much time to geog- 
raphy and little time to arithmetic. Further evidence of 
this uniformity is seen in the average time devoted to the 
various school subjects in representative cities in the United 
States. Table VII shows this. There is a striking uniform- 
ity in these three periods, 1904, 1910, 1915 — even more 
than is at first apparent, since the sums of percentages in 
1910 and 1915 are 107.21 and 110.5, respectively, in place 
of 100. This means that all of the percentages for these 
two years should be slightly reduced. 

TABLE VII 
Time Assignments in 1904, 1910, and 1915 



Assignments 



19041 


1910' 


3.1 




20.7 


23.74 


4.7 


5.71 


4.7 


7.06 


14.4 


15.60 


17.3 


15.26 


7.2 


11.60 


4.8 




3.4 


3.65 


5.4 


6.58 


6.4 


7.34 


5.1 


5.88 


2.4 


4.79 


99.6 


107.21 



19153 



Opening exercises 

Reading 

Writing 

Spelling 

Language, grammar, supplementary read- 
ing, composition 

Arithmetic 

Geography 

History 

Elementary science 

Physiology, physical training 

Drawing 

Music 

Manual training 



26.3 
5.9 

7.4 

13.8 
15.9 
7.7 
5.8 
4.5 
5.5 
6.7 
5.9 
5.1 



110.5 



^ Taken from Payne, B. R., Public Elementary School Curricula, page 39. 
^ Taken from Elementary School Journal, Vol. 10, page 313, 1910. 
' Taken from the Fourteenth Year Book of the National Society for the 
Study of Education, page 25, 1915. 



212 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

School topics. Uniformity is further seen in the sub- 
topics or analysis of each of the school subjects. In arith- 
metic, for example, in the school systems referred to in the 
previous section, topics such as addition, division, denomi- 
nate numbers, fractions, and percentage are taught uniformly 
and receive the greatest emphasis in certain grades.^ 

Textbooks. The textbook is one of the factors of greatest 
influence upon uniformity in school work. It is to be feared 
that most teachers follow the text slavishly. However ade- 
quate the explanations for this practice may be, the effect 
is to require all to do practically the same work. Thus, 
the fifty pupils under one teacher are treated as one. More- 
over, in any district or city one text is used throughout the 
schools. In too many cases the uniformity called for by 
the text itself is yet more emphasized by the assignments of 
work that come from superintendent's or supervisor's office. 
These assignments stipulate, often by page references in the 
texts, the amount of work to be done in a given time. For- 
tunately this is becoming less common in public schools, 
but an examination of school reports and courses of study 
convinces one that this practice is still quite prevalent. 
This means that not only the pupils of a given grade in one 
school conform, but all pupils of that grade throughout the 
district or city must also conform. County adoptions of 
texts undoubtedly have this effect. State-wide adoptions 
extend very considerably this influence. 

One principle underlying this extensive use of selected 
texts is probably found in the belief in minimum essentials 
in the traditional common branches. The Fourteenth Year 
Book (1915) of the National Society for the Study of Educa- 
tion presents the problem of " Minimum Essentials in 
Elementary School Subjects." This volume makes reports 
of various current practices in the formal subjects, a variety 
^ See Payne, B. R., Public Elementary School Curricula. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 213 

of texts, and a few experiments in the study of means of 
ascertaining what should be the minimum essentials. It 
seems to be assumed throughout that there should be 
minimum essentials in these traditional subjects. And, 
doubtless, this assumption is quite generally made. On this 
basis it may readily be expected that the textbook will 
express the consensus of opinion as to these essentials. 

The recitation. The nature of the recitation is largely 
determined by the subject matter and the prevailing notion 
as to the purpose of the recitation. Here is another instance 
of uniformity in the traditional school work. The foregoing 
sections have pointed out the uniformity in subjects and 
texts. In the conduct of the recitation there is unquestion- 
ably a variety of methods employed, such as the so-called 
inductive, deductive, developmental, review, drill, topical, 
and lecture methods. But probably the prevailing 
*' method " is that of " hearing textbook lessons." This 
method is essentially a question and answer recitation. 
The immediate purpose on the part of the teacher is to 
ascertain what the student has accomplished on the work 
assigned.^ 

Dr. Ernest Horn has made a careful study of " Participa- 
tion among Pupils in Classroom Recitations." ^ That por- 
tion of this study which presents the relationship between 
the pupil's ability in various subjects (as judged by the 
teacher) and the amount of participation by the pupil in 
these subjects shows great uniformity : 

" Inequality of Distribution by Subjects. It is especially 
significant that the greatest equality of distribution should 
lie with those subjects which are most adaptable for formal 
treatment and pure memory work. For the most part, these 

^ An excellent stenographic report and discussion of tlie recitation is found 
in Stevens, Romiett, The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction. 
^ Horn, E., Participation among Pupils in Classroom Recitations, 1914. 



214 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

subjects have been long in the curriculum, so that teachers 
through a period of many hundred years have perfected 
and handed down mechanical procedures and devices for 
securing an equable distribution. . . . With the modern 
tendency to increase the amount of problematic organization 
in the curriculum; to demand that the course of study be 
tied up with life outside the school ; to insist that the pupil 
make out his own problems, and that he develop aesthetic 
and ethical appreciation ; the problem becomes increasingly 
important. That we have not reached a satisfactory solu- 
tion is evidenced by the fact that the two schools which are 
perhaps among the foremost of the country in setting up 
these new standards (Schools IV and XVI) are among those 
in which the inequality of distribution of opportunity for 
participation is greatest." ^ 

Various theories as to the method of conducting the recita- 
tion imply uniform treatment of all pupils in that no definite 
variations in methods are suggested for the individuals 
who differ. Such theories seem well carried out, if one may 
judge from Horn's tables. 

Examinations and standardization. State examinations 
required of pupils throughout the state cannot but tend 
to make school work uniform for all pupils. The same must 
be said of county, city, and even of individual room exami- 
nations. Examinations continued for some time tend to 
set up forms for all alike. Pupils soon learn for what to 
prepare. The strong and the weak attempt practically 
identical work. 

The standard tests so rapidly developing in recent years 
are having a great influence in making more uniform the work 
of pupils. These tests are virtually developing certain very 

^ Horn, E., Participation among Pupils in Classroom Recitations, 
pages 36-37. School XVI is the University Elementary School at the 
University of Missouri. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 215 

definite standards in the various subjects for particular 
stages of a pupil's advancement. These standards will 
really fix the " minimum essentials " in such subjects. 
This means that schools, teachers, and pupils will endeavor 
to reach such standards. To reach those standards and go 
no further means uniformity. The improbability of students 
advancing beyond those standards is indicated in a state- 
ment by one of the leaders of the standardization movement : 
" I was astonished to find, in checking up the time cost for 
one class of 20 pupils, that the total time set free in 12 weeks 
by excusing those who had reached the standard amounted to 
1460 minutes, or 13 per cent of the total time given by the 
class to the drill work. Other classes gave similar results." ^ 

Classification of students. About a decade ago it was 
discovered that pupils in our public schools were making 
progress through the grades at varying rates. Not many 
were accelerated in their progress, but a large percentage 
were retarded one or more years. This variation seemed 
a serious defect of the school and in recent years strenuous 
efforts have been made to lessen greatly the variation in 
rates of progress. Various means and devices have been 
used and with evident effect. The slow, indifferent, and 
even incapable student is somehow being brought up to the 
standard, though the percentage of retarded pupils is still 
very high. 

Explanation of such imifonnity. Those who are respon- 
sible for much of this uniformity in school work, especially 
the advocates of the standardization of school work, believe 
that by this means the general average of accomplishments 
is raised. The amount of work done is measured by the 
general average. Individual differences are largely dis- 
regarded. It is believed, further, that comparisons are 

^ Statement by S. A. Courtis, quoted in Report of the Commissioner of 
Education, 1915, Vol. I, page 36. 



216 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

facilitated when work is of a uniform order. This is an 
age when comparisons are stressed. Schools vie with one 
another ; pupils meet in sharp competition. School admin- 
istrators and teachers find great satisfaction in attaining 
to the standard set by another school or in proving superior 
to that school. Pupils' work in arithmetic cannot be com- 
pared with other pupils' work in geography; nor the work 
in the " applications of percentage " with that in long divi- 
sion. Thus considerable satisfaction is found in securing 
common grounds on which competition and comparison can 
be carried on. 

Classification, promotion, and transference of pupils are 
greatly simplified when such pupils have been engaged in 
works of a uniform nature and extent. In large city systems 
there is much transferring from one school to another. This 
administrative problem is greatly simplified if the correspond- 
ing grades do identical work. This uniformity is secured 
by the use of common texts and the following of outlines 
from the superintendent's oflBce, even to the pages in the 
texts. ^ 

Moreover, the nature of the traditional curriculum makes 
uniformity of work most natural. The processes of division 
of integers and the multiplication of fractions are identical 
— or nearly so — in all schools. Language forms and 
grammatical constructions are uniform. Most of the studies 
in geography correspond closely in the descriptions of moun- 
tain chains, river systems, characteristics of cities, etc. As 
pointed out in an earlier chapter, the conventional curric- 
ulum is essentially one of principles and generalizations of 
universal application. Little deviation from the constant 
is possible. Illustrations, devices in method, and points of 

^ One of the extreme cases of this was reported in the school survey of 
Portland, Oregon. However, an examination of courses of study will show 
how prevalent this practice is. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 217 

application vary, but these are only incidental to the curric- 
ulum itself. 

But perhaps the most satisfactory explanation for the 
uniformity in school work is to be found in the habit of the 
schools. Custom plays an important role. It is much easier 
to follow custom than to do work upon one's own initiative. 
Self-direction is more taxing. Uniformity is the line of least 
resistance. This educational habit, rather than professional 
insight, probably accounts for the introductory statement 
in the Course of Study and Syllabus for Elementary Schools 
of New York State (1910) : " This course is general in 
character and adapted to all children until that period of 
their development when they manifest different interests, 
mental powers and tastes, which is usually at the age of 12." 

Results of such uniformity. Opposed to such seeming 
advantages in uniformity, there are baneful results that 
cannot be overlooked. One of the most conspicuous of these 
is that teaching is made mechanical. Forty or fifty pupils 
are taught as one. A principle of the old monitorial system 
prevails, memoriter work for one and all. This practice 
results in essentially learning and drilling. " In short, 
freedom to grow, and positive aids to growth, are necessary 
alike for all teachers, both young and old, and poor and 
good. But this curriculum and these syllabi have neither 
allowed this freedom nor furnished these aids ; and in these 
facts we find at least a partial explanation for the poor 
quality of class-room instruction." ^ 

Again, the natural results of uniformity in the curriculum 
are a large percentage of retarded pupils. This astonishing 
effect was brought to our attention a decade ago. Various 
" cures " have been applied, and the amount of retardation 
has been reduced. But occasions for such cures must 

^ McMurry, F. M., Interim Report, Committee on School Inquiry, City 
of New York, 1911-1912, page 116. 



218 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

continue until prevention has been secured through the 
discontinuance of a uniform curriculum for boys and girls 
who are not uniform. 

It may be seriously questioned whether the uniformity of 
the traditional curriculum is not the cause of many of the 
social misfits in life. Think of the uniform school work 
and the great variety of employments into which boys and 
girls enter upon leaving school.^ " One who goes out of the 
school system before the end or at the end of the elementary 
course is not only unprepared for any vocation which will 
be open to him, but too commonly he is without that intel- 
lectual training which should make him eager for opportunity 
and incite him to the utmost effort to do just as well as he 
can whatever may open to him." ^ " The school fails to 
hold the interest and attention of the average child, par- 
ticularly of the average boy, because the school training 
has so little relation to the world in which the average man 
and woman are called upon to live and work." ^ In the 
Vocational Education Survey of Richmond, Virginia,'^ only 
one employer in the building trades suggested that general 
education was needed by the young employee. The most 
frequent demand was for specific training for particular 
trades. The Vocational Guidance Survey of New York City 
led to the conclusion that " general information is sorry 
comfort to a boy whose whole problem is specific." 

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 

School differences. The usual teacher wishes her forty or 
fifty pupils were all of one make. Her work would be so 
much easier. If all were to misspell the same words in a 

•^ See Vocational Education Survey of Richmond, Virginia, for analysis of 
such employments. 

^ Draper, A. S., American Education, page 278. 

3 Nearing, Scott, Social Adjustment, page 59. 

^ Issued by the United States Department of Labor, 1916. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 219 

composition exercise, the reading and correcting of one 
paper would suffice for all. This teacher's futile wish is the 
more eager as the diflFerences among her pupils are the more 
marked. These striking difiFerences are often irritating — 
even exasperating — to the teacher, especially the one 
who thinks more of keeping school than teaching pupils. 
We readily notice great differences in pupils' industry. 
Some are studious, painstaking, and earnest in their work. 
Others are disposed to idle away their time, to be careless 
and unconcerned about their work. Some have real ability 
in studying, in learning, and in reciting. Others have not, 
though in this case they usually have ability in activities 
of quite another character. Some pupils show marked 
ability in arithmetic, but their rank is taken by others in the 
subject of geography. Such differences are readily noticed 
even in the same subject ; some are capable in drill exercises 
in fractions, but are surpassed by others in problems for 
application. Some pupils make progress rapidly — if the 
system of promotion allows. Some make up the army of 
retarded pupils, one, two, three, or more years behind. 
Some pupils are circumspect in their conduct; others have 
" bad " deportment on their records. This means only that 
these pupils differ in their behavior, one group pleasing the 
teacher, the other displeasing her. 

But such differences are too commonplace to warrant 
further details. It must be said, however, that the rank 
and file of teachers do not take the cognizance of such dif- 
ferences needed for the good of the pupils. The wish for 
uniformity is too nearly realized by arbitrarily treating the 
pupil as though any differences that do prevail are not to 
be taken into account. 

Psychological differences. But there are individual dif- 
ferences of a deeper nature than those so commonplace in the 
school. There are marked differences in types of intellect. 



220 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Thorndike has divided these intellects into two classes, the 
idea thinker and the thing thinker.^ The former thinks well 
in terms of the book, the latter in terms of the shop and other 
forms of objective life. There are differences in types of will 
and of temperament. There are great differences in in- 
terests ; some are interested in play, others in work ; some 
in wild animals, others in pets ; some in machinery, others 
in the fine arts ; some in constructive activity, others in pm^e 
idleness. Indeed, " The varieties of individuality are so 
great that psychology and child study can never tell teachers 
what they would most like to know — just how to deal with 
individual pupils. . . , the more she knows of how most 
human beings act and develop, . . . the more quickly and 
correctly will she be able to determine what is the best treat- 
ment for an individual child." ^ 

But it is not important to point out here further differences 
or to discuss the nature of such. Teachers are referred to 
writings by Thorndike, Kirkpatrick, and others. 

Importance of individual differences. It was noted in 
Chapter Six that among primitive people one individual 
counted for as much as any other. Indeed, any one indi- 
vidual was not essential to his group. There were scarcely 
any individual differences, practically no education, and little 
development. In recent years individual variations have 
become of great importance. " If symmetry is to be ob- 
tained by cutting down the most vigorous growth, it would 
be better to have a little irregularity here and there.'* 
(Agassiz.) ^ Adjustment is everywhere the present demand. 
In the variations taking place in this complex age, the in- 
dividual must vary from the group that he may prepare 
himself for the particular niche in life which is his lot. In 

1 Thorndike, E. L., Principles of Teaching, page 87. 

2 Kirkpatrick, E. A., Fundamentals of Child Study, pages 315-316. 
' Quoted in Search, P. W., An Ideal School, page 158. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 221 

just this is the essential nature of growth.^ In a static 
civiUzation — which must be hypothetical, not real — 
such variation and growth would not be necessary. But 
the great changes taking place in modern life make changes 
in the individual imperative. The " survival of the fittest," 
even the survival of the fit, depends upon this principle of 
variation. And the usual school teacher — and superin- 
tendent — is too little concerned with this principle. Not 
until those in charge of schools appreciate far more than they 
now do the part variation plays in development and adjust- 
ment will our pupils be freed from the harmful regime of 
uniformity. 

A second indication of the importance of this principle is to 
be seen in the greatly varied activities of pupils outside of 
school and the numerous occupations into which they enter 
after leaving school. If the school, in accordance with the 
policy advocated in this volume, emphasizes the helping 
of pupils in their present living, then there is a demand for 
greater variation in school work. If, as in the traditional 
school, preparation for complete living later is the aim, the 
provision for individual differences is no less imperative. 
Boys and girls, in their anticipations of real life, should 
demand of the school the opportunity of gaining an insight 
into possibilities through a great variety of present interests. 

Quite subordinate to the above values, but yet of no small 
importance, is the pedagogical economy in taking into account 
the varying interests, aptitudes, and abilities of pupils. 
No less in school than in real life is attitude toward work and 
success in such work largely governed by purposes in the 
individual. Provide an individual with work that serves 
his purpose and his interests, and there is found at once a 
motive far more powerful than methods and devices so in- 
geniously or laboriously planned by the teacher. Here 

^ Judd, C. H., Genetic Psychology for Teachers, pages 98-160, 197-235. 



222 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

again school teachers — and superintendents — are too 
unconcerned with the relation of individual differences to 
successful work. Uniformity is assumed to be the line of 
least effort in teaching — such is probably true in school- 
keeping. But effective teaching must take into account 
results as well as effort. With given results, i.e., a certain 
degree of eflBciency, it is probable that less rather than 
greater effort of the teacher is needed when the work offers 
large opportunity for individual variations according to 
different interests. Not more effort is asked of the teacher, 
but greater effects of the effort expended. In a later chapter 
the relation between method and subject matter will be 
discussed, but it may be here noted that studied methods 
of teaching are necessitated by the uniformity of subject 
matter which meets the interests of so few. One word of 
caution, which is repeated in other places in this volume : 
The teacher should beware of using individual differences — 
i.e., interests — as means of securing an interest in the 
subject planned for all. Reach secondary interests through 
primary interests, is the advice given by some educators. 
This procedure is scarcely less than a violation of pupils' 
rights ; their real interests are used by the teacher to induce 
them to work upon what is of only secondary importance to 
them. Due consideration to individual differences would 
greatly relieve the school of the monotony of uniformity. 

In his chapter on " Individuality," Kirkpatrick ^ has called 
attention to the importance of " commonality." He says, 
" To develop the common characteristics necessary to the 
maintenance of proper social relations, there must be some 
uniformity as to what is done and learned." The emphasis in 
the discussion given above to individual differences does not 
preclude suflBcient attention to the acquisition of those char- 
acteristics and abilities that make social relations possible. 
1 Kirkpatrick, E. A., Fundamentals of Child Study, pages 302-319. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 223 

Recognition of the importance of individual differences. 
Studies in individual differences as well as in social com- 
plexities have led school men to recognize in some degree 
the importance of the variations of individuals. Accordingly, 
various plans have been put into effect to provide relief 
from uniformity and freedom for individual development. 

PROVISIONS MADE FOR INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 

The elective system. A system in which students are free 
to choose the subjects which they wish to study would appear 
to be suflBcient provision for individual differences. The 
elective system has been in use in colleges and universities 
for some years. However, some restrictions and some 
special subjects are usually required. In the latter part of 
the nineteenth century the high schools followed the example 
of the higher institutions and made provision for limited 
electives. To a very limited extent some schools allow 
credits on work done at home, such as milking cows, feeding 
pigs, making beds, and washing dishes. This is one form 
of electives. In recent years the junior high school, reaching 
downward two years into the elementary school, is making 
an attempt to provide certain elective work to accord with 
individual variations discovered among children of the ages 
of twelve to fourteen. But the elective system thus far 
developed is not all that its name may imply. Restrictions 
have greatly limited the variations intended. Indeed, the 
scope of interests for the students has been so limited that 
their choice has been one of subjects to be avoided rather 
than one of subjects to be elected. In many so-called junior 
high schools, as now organized, the elective system is little 
else than the privilege given to the stronger students to take 
in addition to the usual seventh- and eighth-grade work 
some Latin or algebra, which have been first-year subjects 
in the traditional high school. Even with such limitations. 



^U CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

the elective system can be extended downward into the 
grades only when the departmental system of instruction is 
put into use. The junior high school movement has had 
the effect of bringing the departmental work into the seventh 
and eighth grades. It is probable that the system will not 
go further downward for some years. 

To a large extent the elective system in our public schools 
is far from providing adequately for individual differences. 
First, the subjects for choice are very limited. Then, having 
once chosen subjects by eliminating those not wanted, the 
pupil must work largely in unison with other pupils. There 
is little variation within the subject itself. Could all 
grade pupils choose from the score of subjects listed earlier 
in this chapter, there would still be little freedom within 
geography, or language, or spelling, or arithmetic. Oppor- 
tunity for real variation must be provided in another way. 

Special schools. In some cities or school districts provision 
is planned for those pupils who are regarded as misfits. The 
truant is indeed an individual variant. A truant school is 
arranged for such. Ostensibly the purpose is relief for the 
regular teacher and her school, not a means of providing 
for the different interests of the truant. But the truant 
school is often identified with the ungraded school. One 
of the stronger teachers — usually stronger in management 
and discipline — is placed in charge. The pupils intrusted 
to her are those who are misfits in age, size, intellect, or 
behavior in the regular school. But the school work done 
is little different from that in the regular school ; the chief 
difference is essentially one of method. These schools are 
really hold-over schools. They make no provision for 
individual differences in interests and capacities. Reform 
schools are clearly of this class. Schools for the weak- 
minded vary somewhat in their work according to the mental 
caliber of the pupils. Here again there is less attention to 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 225 

varying interests, in so far as they exist, than to a general 
training intended to bring the mental power of the individual 
up to normal that he may again undertake uniform work. 

Industrial schools. In recognition that many pupils are 
more " thing thinkers " than " idea thinkers," industrial 
schools have been provided. Leavitt discusses such schools 
under the chapter headings, " Prevocational Work in Grades 
6-8," and " The Intermediate or Separate Industrial 
School." ^ In the first class, only the upper grade or the 
greatly retarded pupils are admitted. In some schools 
only boys are admitted. In these schools the traditional 
school work usually occupies the forenoon — or half the 
time — and industrial or shop work the rest of the time. 
In the industrial work some individual variations are allowed 
so far as equipment and instruction can provide. The 
separate industrial school is planned for upper grade pupils 
who do not go on into high school courses. These schools 
are essentially elementary trade schools, and pupils are 
allowed to elect work according to the trade they expect to 
follow. Thus, these industrial schools are arranged for 
usual misfits in the traditional course. They are not planned 
to discover and develop individual differences among the 
great majority of grade pupils. 

Dififerentiation in the uniform subjects. A further attempt 
to provide for individual differences in the grade schools has 
been made in permitting certain deviations within the subject 
or assigned lessons. Optional work is allowed. Special com- 
position is accepted in lieu of assigned work ; problems may 
be substituted for exercises in arithmetic ; original map 
drawings may take the place of a study of the text in geog- 
raphy. Such variations are, however, very slight and are 
more in the nature of a compromise between the usual 
requirements by the teacher and the real interests of the 
^ Leavitt, F. M., Examples of Industrial Education, pages 95, 129. 



226 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

pupils. Indeed, the variations cannot be at all extended 
when limited to the scope of work outlined in terms of the 
traditional and formal curriculum. Even the texts attempt 
provisions for such differences. There are " practical " 
arithmetics, " everyday " arithmetics, " business " arith- 
metics, " commercial " arithmetics, and just arithmetics. 
There are " practical " language lessons, " live " language les- 
sons, and just language lessons. Further, the attention of 
the teacher to individual pupils during study periods is an 
earnest attempt to provide for individual differences. This 
effort is best known as the " Batavia System." ^ " Super- 
vised study," so much emphasized in recent months, is a 
similar attempt to provide for the development of individual 
interests. Parker 2 presents three means, not discussed 
above, of attempting to adapt school work to individual 
differences: 1, Abolishing all class instruction and reverting 
to the individual method — the Pueblo plan ; 2, self- 
conducted homogeneous groups — a modified form of the 
monitorial scheme; 3, recitations for only those students 
who need them, seat work for others. 

These statements lead to a generalization as to the in- 
adequacy of the usual methods of providing for individual 
differences. Not one of them is sufficiently far-reaching. 
Nor can they become so under the limitations of a curric- 
ulum which consists largely of principles rather than prac- 
tices. The elective system under great restrictions in the 
lower schools is essentially a means of inducing students to 
tolerate the otherwise uniform requirements. The half- 
day industrial schools claim that such an increase in motive 
and attitude is engendered that the student accomplishes in 
the common branches in half time what he does in full time 
in the traditional school. Differentiation in subject matter 

1 Described in Bagley's Classroom Management, pages 214-223. 

2 Parker, S. C, Methods of Teaching in High Schools, page 379. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 227 

and in the texts is a modification of the elective system and 
has the same effect ; it is a means of riveting attention the 
more securely upon the old uniformities. In short, within 
the elementary school at least, if not in the high school as 
well, the attempt to provide for individual differences has 
been wholly and lamentably inadequate. A very much 
more radical plan is necessary. Indeed, there appears to be 
a lack of appreciation of the situation. We are holding 
tenaciously to an antiquated curriculum of extreme uni- 
formities in face of recognized individual differences. We 
are making only meager changes in methods of work and 
management while fully cognizant of great social changes and 
consequent individual variations. We are setting up 
uniform tests and demanding standardization at the same 
time that we are discovering through scientific research the 
great extent to which our pupils differ in the very work which 
we are testing and standardizing. As Dewey pointed out 
some years ago,^ there is a real conflict between our newer 
aims and standards and the conditions of work to which 
we have been accustomed. In the next section an attempt 
is made to point out how provision for individual differences 
may be more effectively made. 

SUGGESTED PROVISIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 

Life activities as subject matter. Principle Two, an- 
nounced at the opening of Chapter Nine, makes a demand 
for a curriculum in terms of the real life and environment 
of people. In real life there are found individual variations 
according to circumstances. This is in strict accordance 
with the modern idea of adjustment. There is, to be sure, 
much uniformity; for example, gangs of men shovel gravel 
in unison on the railway, or factory hands operate as one 

^ Dewey, J., The Educational Situation. 



228 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

many duplicate machines. But such uniformity bespeaks 
no development. In real life difference is more common than 
uniformity. The very nature of social and industrial life 
demands this. 

If our school work consisted in the main of a study of this 
greatly varied life that is going on outside of the school, there 
would be every opportunity for the individual differences 
among the pupils that are experienced by people in real life. 
In real life the " commonalities " (to use Kirkpatrick's term 
again), so far as language, writing, arithmetic, and the like 
are referred to, are quite incidental to what we are doing. 
For example, we use language of common understanding 
in making a Wall Street transaction or in " swapping " 
jack-knives ; we use arithmetical calculations, mutually 
understood, in these trades or in other quantitative experi- 
ences. There are other activities in life in which we are all 
more or less concerned, for example, transportation. This 
is one of the many topics that compose the curriculum pro- 
posed.^ Because we are all dependent upon some means 
of transporting the things we use, we are concerned with it 
as a study. Thus all the pupils of a given grade in which 
this topic is a part of the curriculum study transportation. 
But the topic admits of unlimited variations for study. 
Unavailability of suitable materials for study may greatly 
limit the opportunity for individual differences ; for example, 
pictures, actual observation of various means of transporta- 
tion, models, descriptions, and other data. But the subject 
itself admits — quite naturally — of all those variations of 
treatment that are actually experienced in the real world. 
Some pupils will give their first attention to the steam engine, 
others to the turbine water wheel ; some to the caterpillar 
tractor, others to the limousine and the pony cart ; some to 
quantitative aspects of transportation, others to the purposes 
1 For outlines see Chapter Seventeen. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 229 

in changing the location of things. Thus, except for present 
lack of means of study (which would soon be supplied if 
demand were made), such a topic provides as wide a range 
of differences as life itself. 

Not until the nature of the curriculum used in the schools 
provides opportunity for differentiation according to interests 
and abilities may we expect pupils to develop suflBciently to 
adjust themselves adequately to the complexities of life. 
Until a more fundamental change in the school curriculum 
is made, the efforts of our schools to provide for individual 
differences will be futile. 

Method of schoolroom work. The traditional curriculum 
calls for a method of learning rather than one of study. 
This procedure has led to the almost universal recitation. 
The recitation is largely used as the time for pupils to re-cite 
what others of the group already know. It is essentially a 
period for testing. Such tests, as also most examinations, 
are not conducive to individual variations. As pointed out 
elsewhere, the recitation of this type is out of place in school 
work. Class work should be a beginning or a continuation 
of individual study. The curriculum proposed in this 
volume fosters study for the purpose of doing rather than 
learning for the purpose of reciting. The teacher and his 
class may open a new topic at some class meeting. None 
of the topics suggested in Chapter Seventeen are wholly new 
to the pupils. The pupils at once set themselves to thinking, 
or commenting, or asking questions. The period is one for 
" conference " rather than recitation. The topic is opened 
much as it would be in real life. Then begins a search for 
more information. This is found in the library, in excursions, 
in consultation with one another or with people outside of 
the school. At irregular times, not every day necessarily, 
the group come together to continue their conference. 
Each makes such contributions as he can. Each has been 



230 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



studying, not an assigned task, but such phases of the topic 
as his individual interests have prompted him to. In this 
conference their findings are pooled. The members of the 
class profit more or less according to their apperceptive 
preparation or their individual interests. It may well be 
expected that some will participate much more at times 
than others and profit accordingly. At other times the 
participation may be reversed. 

In Horn's study of participation in recitation, referred to 
earlier in this chapter, it seems clear that opportunity to 
participate is largely determined in the traditional school 
by the teacher. Horn's tables clearly show that the four 
teachers in the University Elementary School, following the 
methods of class work here advocated, provide opportunity 
for pupils to participate according to the pupils' differences, 
interests, and abilities. From Horn,^ Table VIII is con- 
structed to record the distribution of participations of pupils 
arranged in four quartiles on the basis of general ability. 



TABLE VIII 

Distribution of Participation among Pupils in Classroom Recitation 



Teacher 


1 


2 


3 


4 


193 


49.3 


28.2 


5.6 


16.8 


193 


48.3 


.9 


30.1 


20.7 


191 


36.6 


29.1 


19.4 


14.8 


192 


27.3 


5.5 


30.9 


36.3 


192 


37.1 


24.5 


16.5 


21.8 


194 


39.5 


14.6 


25.6 


20.2 



This table shows that in the group with teacher No. 193 
the fourth of the class ranking highest did 49.3 per cent of 
the participating, the second quartile 28.2 per cent, etc. 

^ Horn, E., Participation among Pupils in Classroom Recitations, pages 
21, 22. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 231 

It is readily noticed that there is considerable irregularity. 
This is quite in contrast with records of other teachers shown 
in Horn's tables. This irregularity is probably due to the 
fact that in this school the pupils vary in their participations 
according to their interests and their abilities in the particular 
topics under consideration. Their participations are gov- 
erned, not by the teacher's questions, as seems the case 
in the traditional schools, but by the pupils themselves. 
The participations in class are largely voluntary. Thus, 
quite in contrast to the traditional form of recitation, the 
" conference " of this school provides much more liberally for 
individual differences. 

The individual standard for results. So long as uniform 
tests are used and pupils as well as schools are standardized, 
little progress may be expected in the furtherance of indi- 
vidual differences. Competition is said to be the life of 
trade, and comparison the spur to higher educational achieve- 
ment. Differences in such cases are quantitative with 
respect to one common characteristic. But quantitative 
differences are not of chief importance here. The problem 
is rather one of differences in traits — in interests, in pur- 
poses. To the extent that minimum essentials are sought 
and required, in terms of traditional school subjects, to that 
extent individual differences are disregarded. 

The purpose of the elementary school should be to help 
hoys and girls do better in all those wholesome activities in which 
they normally engage. This means that each is to do better 
than he himself has previously done. Competition is with 
his former self. The standard for each pupil is the best he 
can possibly do. This means that in the study in which a 
pupil is engaged there is no specification as to the amount 
to be accomplished, in terms of pages, or problems, or tests, 
or averages, or minimum requirements. The only require- 
ment is that each do all he can to the best of bis ability. 



232 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

What an individual accomplishes may indeed be compared 
with accomplishments of others, but care should be taken 
that the work of the average or that of any group be not made 
the standard for others. By this means individual variations 
are greatly encouraged, not directly but by indirectly setting 
wholly aside the notion of uniformity of work or the standard 
set by the average. 

This plan is quite at variance with prevailing practice and 
present tendency. Opposition will probably be made on the 
ground that minimum requirements and uniform standards 
are essential to secure satisfactory work by school pupils 
— and teachers. Just such seems to be the case in the tra- 
ditional school with the formal curriculum. It does not 
hold true in the everyday life of children and adults. Uni- 
form standards serve the purpose assigned when the employ- 
ment is not according to the interests and abilities of the 
participants. They serve as a goad, but are thus an ill 
reflection upon the appropriateness of the school work in 
which the pupils are engaged. The individual standard 
is adequate when the pupil's efforts are guided by his own 
interests. The best motives for good work are found in the 
opportunity for individual variations according to real 
needs. 

VIEWPOINT ON INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 

Provision for the development of individual differences 
will be made in proportion to the importance attributed to it. 
The problem of individual differences is a comparatively 
recent discovery. Until its importance is fully appreciated, 
present provisions will be deemed adequate. The position 
is taken in this chapter that by reason of the highly differ- 
entiated phases of everyday life of children and adults, 
effective school work should provide for differentiation on 
the part of pupils to no less extent. This means a radical 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 23S 

departure from the present practice of uniform requirements 
so characteristic of our pubHc schools. The traditional 
curriculum does not admit of such variations. The subject 
matter of the traditional curriculum constitutes the " com- 
monality " among people in real life. Only when the cur- 
riculum is taken directly from real life and the Three R's 
become as incidental as in real life; when, in consequence 
of such a radical change, our schoolroom methods provide 
for real study rather than chorus recitation ; when, in further 
consequence, minimum requirements and standards set by 
averages are ruled out — only then can adequate provision 
be made for the important individual differences ^ among 
pupils. 

This provision for individual differences through a curric- 
ulum in terms of community life leads to a large problem in 
school management not discussed in this volume. School 
organization by definite grades and school management by a 

1 In this chapter no consideration has been given to the quantitative 
differences of individuals in selected common traits. The problem here is 
one of different traits, rather than amounts of difference in any common 
trait. 

I am not unappreciative of Thorndike's insistence that "effective de- 
scription of the facts of individual differences and of their causation must 
be quantitative. The questions are questions of amount, or at least be- 
come such when carried beyond a first survey" (Educational Psychology, 
Vol. Ill, page 144). In that case the practical school man should not 
go "beyond a first survey," though the psychologist may advisedly do so. 
In Horn's study, referred to in this chapter, pupils are compared quanti- 
tatively as to their participation in recitations. I think pupils of School 
XVI should be compared on a different basis. Tom's participation is at 
a maximum when the topic under discussion is the steam engine as an 
instrument of transportation. Mary takes no recognizable part, as her 
interest is practically negligible. In a study of the limousine for wornen 
and aged men, the positions of Tom and Mary are reversed. The im- 
mediate and practical question for the school supervisor or teacher is not. 
How much do Tom and Mary differ in ability to recite upon the topic 
"steam engine," when one is scored 837 and the other .738? — but rather. 
How should school work be arranged when it is evident that boys show a 
genuine interest in one topic and girls in another? It is this practical 
question that is discussed in this chapter. For this reason references to 
strictly quantitative studies of individual differences are not included in 
the readings given. 



234 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

definite schedule, whatever be the nature of the subject mat- 
ter studied, preclude such full provision for normal opportu- 
nity for school occupation as is found in home and community 
life. The school must become a miniature community. 
Pupils must have liberty to work and play as may be deter- 
mined by circumstances, not by the dictates of teacher or 
by regulation of school schedule or organization. The 
schedule suggested on page 269 and the outlines of work by 
grades given in Chapter Seventeen are a compromise. These 
must yield to a schedule that enables individuals and varying 
groups to work and play as citizens work and play in home 
and community. The well-regulated home and the well- 
ordered community are examples for schools in which ade- 
quate provision is made for the individual differences of its 
pupils. 

' Supplementary Readings 

Baglet, W. C. Classroom Management, pages 214-223. 

Dewey, J. "Individuality," in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 

JuDD, C.H. "Individual Dififerences," in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 

Genetic Psychology for Teachers, pages 98-160. 

KiBKPATRicK, E. A. The Individual in the Making, pages 279-307. 

Fundamentals of Child Study, pages 302-319. 

McManis, J. T. "Individual Differences in the Early Grades." School 

and Society, Vol. 3, pages 289-295. 
McMurrt, F. M. Uniform Curriculum and Examinations, National 

Education Association, 1913, pages 130-148. 

How to Study and Teaching How to Study, pages 246-280. 

Elementary School Standards, see Index. 

Munroe, J. P. New Demands in Education, pages 3-41. 
Neaeing, S. Social Adjustment, pages 28-69. 

Parker, S. C. Methods of Teaching in High Schools, pages 362-390. 

Puffer, J. A. Vocational Guidance, pages 128-144. 

Search, P. W. An Ideal School, pages 158-176. 

SiDERS, W. R. In Class Instruction, How Can the Individual be Reached? 

National Education Association, 1909, pages 175-182. 
Snedden, D. Educational Readjustment, pages 130-153. 
Strateb, G. D., and Noeswoethy, Naomi. How to Teach, pages 151-170. 



CURRICULUM AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 235 

Thorndike, E. L. Individuality, pages 1-52. 

The Principles of Teaching, pages 68-104. 

WiLLiSTON, A. L. Types of Schools for Different Pupils. National Educa- 
tion Association, 1913, pages 567-571. 
Young, J. W. A. The Teaching of Mathematics, pages 81-86. 

General References 

Dewey, J. Democracy and Education, pages 340-357. 

Draper, A. S. American Education, pages 119-136, 275-290. 

Horn, E. Distribution of Opportunity for Participation Among the Various 

Pupils in Classroom Recitations. 
Inglis, a. "Reorganization of the High School." School Review, Vol. 23, 

pages 307-318 (adolescent differences). 
KiRKPATRiCK, E. A. The Individual in the Making. 
Report on Minimum Essentials, Fourteenth Year Book of the National 

Society for the Study of Education. 
Snedden, D. In Monroe's Principles of Secondary Education, pages 214- 

231. 
Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology, Vol. Ill, pages 142-388. 
Weeks, Ruth. The Peoples School, pages 38-108, 149-189. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Eleven 

School organization is of two types : 

One type is for the purpose of contributing to more effective 

teaching ; 
The other type is pure form — an end in itself. 
Organization of the formal type is prominent in the traditional school. 
Pupils are closely graded and the contents of texts are logically 

arranged. 
This organization is due to an adult's point of view. 
Two evU effects are in evidence : 

Pupils cannot readily adjust themselves to such definite 

schemes. 
Effort is made merely to "cover the ground." 
Changes in organization are in evidence. 

In the elementary school economy of time suggests simplifica- 
tion of organization. 
In the junior high school a reform of the curriculum seems 
assured. 
Organization should yield to continual change. 
"The case is of child." (Dewey.) 
Organization at the University Elementary School is reduced 

to a minimum. 
A minimum organization is effective in instruction. 

A program of easily interchangeable topics is most natural. 
"Prerequisites" are not needed in the elementary school. 
"Minimum essentials" are not imperative. 
Correlation is made simple and effective. 
The problem of relative values is simplified. 
Thoroughness is governed by purpose. 
A minimum organization is effective in school management, 
governing attendance, routine, fatigue, promotion. 
School studies need organization in terms of community life, not in 
terms of the Three R's. 

Final integration of studies is claimed as an essential aim. 
Initial integration is preferable. 

Organization in terms of life makes the problem of integration 
needless. 

286 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 

The Curriculum and Organization 

principle four 

V The curriculum should he so organized that it will admit 
of easy rearrangement of the schedule for any day, of the work 
for any grade, and even of the transfer of work from grade to 
grade. 

TWO VIEWS OF ORGANIZATION 

Organization for a purpose. Most teachers are well 
aware of the prominent part in school work taken by reviews 
and summaries. At the close of a given period of time, the 
usual classroom work is interrupted ; a review is taken 
and summaries are made of the subject matter covered. 
These summaries are condensations in organized form. 
In most schools the purpose is probably to help the pupils 
prepare for examinations. Teachers may also have a con- 
viction that such organization has a much larger purpose, 
i.e., that of helping a pupil retain information in a form con- 
tributing to greater usefulness long after school examina- 
tions. Indeed, such organization of subject matter may be 
regarded as the only effective manner of studying logically. 
As another type of organization for a purpose one may note 
arrangements in various schools for fire drills. A system of 
egress is so arranged that a school of one thousand pupils 
can be emptied in a minute or less. The Lancasterian 
scheme of class management provided for the instruction of 
a large number of pupils by one teacher through a system of 
monitors.^ The purpose was economy of time. " A place for 
everything and everything in its place " expresses in Lan- 

^ For good pictorial illustrations see S. C. Parker's History of Modern 
Elementary Education, page 105. 

237 



238 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

caster's own words his emphasis on organization. These 
few citations are sufficient to illustrate how purposes may 
determine the form of organization. It is easily understood 
how any such arrangement of means and materials may be 
readily changed according to changes of purposes to be ac- 
complished. 

Organization as an end. On the other hand, organization 
tends to become empty and formal. A large number of 
reviews and summaries in elementary school work are of this 
character. A teacher easily falls into the habit of giving 
reviews and making summaries without seriously having in 
mind a specific purpose for such. It is easy in the tra- 
ditional school to allow routine to become so mechanized 
that practices become purposeless, other than to serve as 
" busy work." In school management " lines " may have 
been instituted to accomplish vital purposes. In some 
places purposes may still call for such organization in pass- 
ing into the building and out, but there is good evidence 
that the practice continues, though conditions do not call 
for such management. 

It is important that these two aspects be kept in mind 
during this discussion of school organization. Organization 
efiFected for a specific purpose is to be desired, but there is 
great danger that subject matter and school management 
be organized where purpose is not definite. Principle Four 
is clearly contradictory to prevailing practice in the adminis- 
tration of public schools. Definiteness in organization is a 
marked feature in most schools. Most school administrators 
take much pride in organizing courses of study and manage- 
ment of schools with such definiteness that all teachers can 
readily follow instructions. The position taken in this 
chapter is not against organization, but rather that an undue 
amount of attention has been given to organization to the 
neglect of the very purpose to be accomplished. The reader 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 239 

is here reminded of the point of view of the child presented 
in Chapter One. Organization can be appreciated and used 
only by those of experience. Children are not ready for the 
systematic treatment of subject matter and for definiteness 
in management so much emphasized. 

ORGANIZATION IN THE TRADITIONAL SCHOOL 

Prominent forms of organization. There is no American 
system of schools, but there is much system in American 
schools. Most elementary schools are organized upon the 
basis of eight grades ; some have nine grades, some only 
seven. Where the junior high school has been organized, 
the elementary school is reduced to six grades. In school 
districts enrolling a considerable number of pupils these 
grades are usually divided into two sections, the more ad- 
vanced and the less advanced, usually one half year apart. 
Some schools use adaptations of the well-known Cambridge 
system. This system is of the moving-sidewalk type; that 
is, different groups progress at different rates. Thus some 
schools, through a more highly organized plan, provide what 
is essentially a combination of six-, seven-, eight-, nine-, 
and ten-grade schools in one. Most rural schools have been 
ungraded until recently. Under county supervision — or, 
possibly, more appropriately called county organization — 
practically all rural schools are now graded. This organiza- 
tion is primarily upon the basis of units of subject matter. 
Thus a grade refers to a subdivision of work outlined rather 
than to a year of schooling. Courses of study, as used in 
most schools, consist of divisions and subdivisions of the 
common branches arranged so that within the seven, eight, 
or nine years of the elementary school the conventional 
subject matter can be completed. This organization is 
evidently upon the assumption that the pupils have a definite 
amount of work to be accomplished ; that they have a given 



240 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

time in which to do this ; and thus organization of subject 
matter on the basis of time units is a means to an end. 

The organization of the contents of school texts is another 
form of organization prominent in the work of the traditional 
school. In arithmetic, for example, are found chapters in 
orderly arrangement : notation and numeration, addition, 
subtraction, multiplication, division, common fractions, 
decimal fractions, etc. In geography location is the basis 
of organization. The descriptions of both larger and smaller 
sections are on similar plans : physical features, plant and 
animal life, the life of the people. 

Organization due to adult point of view. This logical 
arrangement of pupils, courses of study, and texts is probably 
due to the way the adult views school management, school 
work, and school books. He sees the various phases of the 
school organized. By reason of his experience and his 
appreciation of completeness, the adult is inclined to wish 
certain amounts of work to be covered by the pupil. A 
course of study has a beginning and an end ; a text in arith- 
metic is deficient if it lacks in treatment of certain conven- 
tional topics. Moreover, the administration of a school 
appears to have more control if organization is complete, 
positive, definite. Custom, too, has played a large role. 
Experience tends to crystallize into form. A conven- 
tionalized organization has developed and not many teachers 
and administrators are willing to break from such custom. 

Evil effects. Close organization in school management 
and school work must bear such responsibility for the great 
retardation evident in our schools. Organization endangers 
those who are unable to adjust themselves readily to that 
particular scheme. The boy who is weak in geography, 
however strong he is in other school subjects, or in subjects 
not given a place in school, is retarded by the organiza- 
tion of the course of study and the methods of procedure 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 241 

through the grades. Organization does not harm those who 
can readily adjust themselves to the organization. A second 
evil is the development of the habit of " covering the ground." 
Pupils too generally get the notion that the subject has been 
finished when they have " gone through " the text. Arith- 
metic, organized as in the conventional chapters, does not 
prepare the boy for arithmetical calculation in real life be- 
cause business is not organized after the plan of the school 
text. A boy remembers arithmetic much as it is organized. 
In actual experience he finds quantitative problems, but 
not in the form or order which he recalls in the text. This 
often occasions great trouble. Application is made extremely 
difficult. There is real danger that the pupil's purpose has 
been to complete the subject rather than to use the parts 
of the subject in solving his own problems in real life. 

CURRENT CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION 

In the elementary school. For some years there has been 
a tendency to shorten the elementary course from nine or 
eight to seven or six years. The ostensible purpose is 
economy of time. The traditional course of study is as- 
sumed to be of a rather definite amount. Better trained 
teachers, improved methods, and more efficient equipment 
— not to include the more capable pupil — suggest the 
possibility of accomplishing the course of study in one or 
two years' shorter time. This means a reorganization of 
the work into one or two less divisions (years). The com- 
mon branches are undergoing some such changes. There 
are also tendencies, in some places, to introduce depart- 
mental teaching. This will increase the emphasis on the 
subjects studied, which means more attention to organiza- 
tion. 

To shorten the course because pupils can cover the ground 
in less time is to assume that completing the course is the 



242 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

purpose rather than giving the pupil all possible develop- 
ment in the years of his maturing. There is serious danger 
here that organization take precedence of pupils. 

In the junior high school. The junior high school move- 
ment cannot be divorced from the changes taking place in 
the elementary school. This junior high school movement 
seems to grow out of two situations: 1. The large with- 
drawal of pupils from the public school course. Three 
fourths of the elementary school population do not go so 
far as to enter high school. The junior high school, begin- 
ning at the present seventh grade, would enroll at least all 
those who normally attend the seventh and eighth grades. 
It is expected, further, that the new plan, enrolling pupils 
in a new system, would tend to retain pupils longer than in 
case of no change. 2. The recognition of a great waste in 
our system. This is located in the seventh and eighth grades 
in the belief that in these two grades there is a great deal of 
repetition of work covered in grades lower down. The 
junior high school is arranged, theoretically, on the assump- 
tion that the traditional work of the eight grades can be 
accomplished in six years and that the pupil may save time 
by beginning at the seventh grade on the usual high school 
subjects — or a slight modification of those subjects. The 
junior high school movement is the solution proposed by 
those who view public school work largely as an adminis- 
trative problem. 

One is unable to find in most so-called junior high schools 
any considerable modification of the curriculum of the 
seventh and eighth grades and the first year of high school. 
In most of these schools the chief change in the curriculum 
is the admission of a foreign language as an elective in the 
first year of this school, corresponding to the seventh grade. 
The more striking change is simply the departmental system 
of classes and administration similar to that in high schools. 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 243 

Thus grade pupils are treated as high school students. This 
plan of organization does, indeed, appeal at the outset to a 
goodly number of boys and girls — boys and girls who are 
pleased with the doubtful compliment of being rated as now 
somewhat matured. More independence is allowed ; disci- 
pline is less confining. There is a touch of seeming advance- 
ment in this, and a sufficient number of pupils are thus 
retained to increase the enrollment. 

The junior high school is advocated as a means of securing 
economy of time in elementary and secondary education. 
In so far as the curriculum of the last two years of the grades 
and the first year of the high school remains essentially un- 
changed, economy is scarcely effected. In theory, however, 
repetition in the seventh and eighth grades of work done 
in the lower grades is exchanged for opportunity to advance 
at once into what is nominally high school work. Here is 
the device intended by those who would shorten the ele- 
mentary school to advance the student two years earlier 
into what is known as professional work. 

The advocates of the junior high school are proposing a 
reorganization of secondary education affecting elementary 
education. Until the content of our curriculum throughout 
our public school system is considerably changed, there 
seems to be insufficient reason for the emphasis on reor- 
ganization. A reform in the nature of our curriculum seems 
imperative. Any needed reorganization of the school will 
be a very much simpler matter when that reform is adequately 
made. 

ORGANIZATION CONTINUALLY CHANGED 

" The case is of child." Dewey closes his discussion of 
The Child and the Curriculum with the conclusion, " The 
case is of child." This point of view is emphasized through- 
out this volume, and is especially applicable in the problem 



244 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

of organization. There is serious danger that the adult 
neglect the point of view of the child. School management, 
courses of study, and texts are all without real reference to 
the child. Does the case of the child warrant a change of 
emphasis on school organization ? 

Organization at the University Elementary School. In 
Chapters Thirteen to Sixteen four school studies are presented. 
These four studies include all the school work done. Repre- 
sentative outlines, exhibited in Chapter Seventeen, indicate 
that a great quantity of work is included but is not organized : 
it is even not logically arranged. These topics are shifted 
from grade to grade. No grade has a claim upon any topic. 
The clock may be studied in Grade I one year, in Grade II 
another year. The means of transportation may be studied 
in any grade after Grade III. Indeed, an allied topic, " How 
we go about," is studied in Grade I or Grade II. Thus the 
topics studied may be readily shifted about from grade to 
grade, and the order changed within the grade. It is not 
possible to study spring flowers in October, nor is it ad- 
vantageous to study farming in midwinter. Except as the 
season may affect the study of a topic, there is neither 
sequence nor schedule for the various topics studied. 

Further, no time schedule is set for the various topics. 
The amount of time devoted to a given topic depends upon 
a variety of conditions : information possessed by the 
teacher, source material available, interest of the class as 
well as that of the teacher, time needed for other work, etc. 
The first grade some year may spend one day (i.e., about 
one hour and a half) studying the squirrel; the next year 
the first grade may spend a week or more, using an hour and 
a half each day. One year a sixth grade may spend as high 
as eight weeks (with two and a half hours each day) on the 
topic of manufacturing ; the next year the sixth grade may 
take only half that time on the same topic. This, of course. 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 245 

means that in some years much more work is done on a 
given topic than in other years. If less attention is given 
to one topic, more attention is probably given to another. 

Closely connected with this is a third phase of organization 
of the work. There is no specified amount of work to be 
accomplished in a given time. No minimum requirement 
is made for any grade, nor does graduation from the school 
of seven grades indicate the completion of a specified course 
of study. Promotion from grade to grade is essentially 
upon the basis of one year's experience in the school. Gradua- 
tion is largely upon the basis of seven years of normal ac- 
tivities in the school. There are, to be sure, exceptions. 
These individual cases are decided upon by the various 
teachers concerned, perhaps even admitting the pupil in ques- 
tion to the conference. No tests nor examinations of a formal 
type are given. The daily work is the basis for judgment. 

Educational considerations affected by such a program. 
1. A program of easily interchangeable topics is most 
natural. Teachers are in the habit of following the chapters 
in arithmetic in order — and this order is almost universal. 
Geography study proceeds from the New England states 
to other groups of states westward. History is followed 
in its chronological order. From the point of view of pupils 
there is no inherent reason for studying decimal fractions 
before percentage, which is a special case of decimals, nor 
are pupils naturally interested in following many events 
in sequence of time. In studying topics taken directly from 
social and industrial life, this absence of organization makes 
the study of a topic according to circumstances the much more 
natural course. Therefore it may be studied in one grade or 
another, sometimes early in the school year, sometimes late. 

2. The foregoing statement implies that prerequisites 
are not needed in these elementary studies. One subject 
must be preceded by another only in case the subject matter 



246 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

is so technical that certain information or training is supplied 
in the prerequisite. In real life one who studies the banking 
business is not required to study the grocery business previ- 
ously. In real life we study a situation so far as our ability 
at that time enables us, then we stop for a time. Such 
would be the case in school did the studies consist of the 
experiences of people in real life. But even the formal 
subject matter of the traditional school need not be organized 
in a particular order. 

3. Minimum essentials are not imperative. Just now 
much effort is being directed to ascertain these minimum 
essentials in the various traditional school subjects. If we 
assume that the common branches are essential school 
subjects and if we do discover the one thousand words 
most used in correspondence we have still no basis for con- 
cluding that the spelling of two new words shall be taught 
each day or that these thousand words must be mastered 
before the close of school. A discovery of what is actually 
used by adults does not yet determine what must be taught 
to children in school. We must discover, also, whether the 
mastery of the spelling of these thousand words in school is 
retained until the words are used in adult life, or whether 
we really learn to spell them in the course of reading and 
writing later in life, when such spelling functions in real 
situations. Only in comparatively few establishments do 
employers require of the candidate for employment a cer- 
tain proficiency in spelling, in arithmetical ability, in geo- 
graphical knowledge. In real life these minimum essentials 
are incidentals. As our schools take on more and more the 
study of real life rather than the conventional Three R's, 
the possibility of mapping out minimum essentials will 
diminish. 

4. Correlation would be greatly changed by a much more 
flexible organization. The conventional correlation of geog- 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 247 

raphy and language, of language and nature study, of agri- 
culture and arithmetic, is arbitrary. This correlation goes 
so far that the two subjects are taught together when such 
union is possible, rather than when it is needed. The best 
way to correlate is not to consciously correlate such sub- 
jects. Study effectively the grocery store, for example, and 
such work in arithmetic, language, and geography as is 
needed will be called into play. Determine in advance 
that in this study certain aspects of numbers, of language 
forms, and of geographical work must be correlated, and 
correlation becomes studied, stilted, artificial, ineffective. 
The best correlation accompanies effective study of a real 
problem; the studies correlated are determined by their 
contribution to the main issue. In the representative 
outlines given in Chapter Seventeen, it is readily seen how 
materials of geographical, arithmetical, and language nature 
correlate by contributing to the study of the grocery store 
or transportation. *^ 

5. A flexible organization simplifies the problem of 
relative values. Much attention has been given to the equi- 
table distribution of time among the various subjects on 
the daily program. The percentage of time allowed for 
arithmetic, geography, spelling, etc., is the result of custom 
in schools rather than because those subjects serve children 
or even adults according to that division of time. In most 
elementary schools these daily schedules are followed rather 
closely. In contrast to this rigid schedule, the amount of 
arithmetical work should be determined by the need of 
such in the solution of real problems. If a grade of pupils 
is studying banking, much more time and attention would 
be devoted to arithmetical calculation than when studying 
the United States postal service, or manners and customs of 
peoples. There is serious danger in allowing the relative 
values of traditional subjects to become fixed. These 



248 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULIBI 

values should fluctuate according to the service they render 
the larger problem being studied. 

6, Thoroughness is another issue greatly simplified by the 
flexible organization advocated. Thoroughness in school 
work is too generally regarded as the mastery of certain 
rather fixed subject matter. In real life thoroughness is 
regulated by purposes to be accomplished. Thoroughness 
must, therefore, vary according to circumstances. In study- 
ing banking, sixth-grade pupils must master certain arith- 
metical processes in so far as they serve in this study. But 
the content in this study of banking must vary according 
to the advancement of pupils studying it. Fourth-grade 
pupils will make a less extensive study of this business than 
sixth-grade pupils. High school students would carry the 
study much further. Thoroughness must be a new problem 
with every change of subject and class of pupils. 

School management as affected by this flexible organiza- 
tion. 1. Attendance is much emphasized in most schools. 
Close organization of courses of study and school manage- 
ment may require this. An organization admitting frequent 
shifts places emphasis upon work accomplished, industrious 
attitude developed, or power of application, rather than 
upon regularity in attendance. Attendance becomes a 
less serious problem when the school is less organized (not 
disorganized) in accordance with the nature of children. 
On the other hand, attendance becomes better when school 
work and management appeal to children than when regular 
attendance is emphasized as a virtue in place of a means to 
an end. 

2. Mechanical routine should yield to thoughtful direc- 
tion. True, some habits are solvents of much waste. It is 
to be greatly feared, however, that " mechanizing routine " 
contributes more to keeping school than teaching school. 
Routine emphasizes the mechanics of school. Things of 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 249 

first concern are liable to receive only secondary considera- 
tion. One of the greatest weaknesses in the pupil-product 
of the traditional school is that the individual exhibits 
more blind obedience than thoughtful self -direction. He has 
been trained under the influence of exact organization that 
develops compliance rather than under the influence of 
flexible organization that demands continual judgment. 
The amount of arithmetical calculation used in the study 
of the grocery store, the post ofl&ce, methods of manufactur- 
ing, etc., must be judged anew each time the topic is studied. 
Thoughtful direction under a flexible organization is more 
in accordance with real life and is more developmental than 
mechanical routine under a rigid organization. 

3. Fatigue among pupils has become quite a problem for 
students of school conditions. Children run all day in 
play ; they soon become " tired " when directed to attend 
to tasks. In school, pupils — and teachers too — become 
fatigued probably by reason of effort in complying with 
organization and routine rather than because of effort 
expended in industrious application. Studies of fatigue 
among school children have been made upon the basis of 
their work upon the traditional school subjects. The 
investigator is likely to reach quite other conclusions when 
school conditions make possible some studies of effort ex- 
pended in which the pupil is more individual in his work 
and in which his time and energy are governed by varying 
needs rather than by previously organized work and schedule. 

4. A very different basis for promotion is suggested. 
Promotion in the traditional school is primarily upon the 
basis of accomplishment of minimum essentials, or probable 
ability to do the work of the next grade as judged by the 
quality of work already done. 

Schools that succeed best in promotions of that nature are 
closely organized. Do away with this close organization, 



250 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

set aside minimum essentials as really not essential, look 
upon the world of experience as offering very much more* 
subject matter for study than pupils can accomplish, and 
recognize that individuals differ greatly in their needs — 
then promotion must be governed by the probable profit 
to the individual. Increase in experience is, in almost all 
cases, more profitable than repetition of work. Only in 
very exceptional cases should pupils not be promoted. 
Promotion should be upon the basis of a year of normal 
life. If we accept the principle presented in the preceding 
section that prerequisites are not needed in the elementary 
school, a pupil may advisably be promoted from Grade V 
to Grade VI without having accomplished work outlined for 
the fifth grade. This policy is in strict accordance with 
the principle discussed in Chapter Eight : the best prepara- 
tion for later efficiency is efficiency in the immediate present. 
This policy for promotion may appear weak. Viewed 
from the standpoint of the pupil rather than organization 
by the adult, the policy is more plausible. More sympathetic 
consideration by teachers and more thoughtful supervision 
by principal and superintendent are called for. Deplorable 
retardation will be largely prevented. Only those who 
have not confidence in the disposition of children to do well 
under favorable conditions would believe that such a policy 
of promotion would lead pupils to be indifferent and negli- 
gent in their work. Make school conditions favorable to 
healthy, normal activity of children and only in very ex- 
ceptional cases will pupils take advantage of this policy of 
promotion. 

INTEGRATION OF STUDIES 

Final integration. " The final integration of studies and 
experiences of the pupil is an essential aim of the course of 
study. It may be necessary for the pupil to acquir.e habits 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 251 

piecemeal, to develop skill bit by bit, and to gain knowledge 
by the general process of division of labor; but education 
is incomplete until these are integrated with themselves and 
with life." ^ Piecemeal knowledge refers to the common 
branches of study and their subdivisions. The prevailing 
view is that integration is secured by " applications " of 
geography, arithmetic, language, etc., to real life. 

Initial integration. Throughout this volume a diflferent 
point of view is presented. Final integration means no 
integration by the masses of young people who do not 
attend school long enough to get that unification of studies 
in life itself. Such children once out of school experience 
life without reference to the school studies taken earlier. 
These school studies, in the form of the Three R's, are only 
instruments in the conduct of life. Initial integration, in 
the form of life activities as topics for study, is natural 
rather than arbitrary. From the very beginning pupils 
should be led to center attention upon that in which the 
various subjects unite ; they should recognize and appreciate 
how knowledge of numbers, language forms, and places 
enables them to study better the various phases of life, as 
represented in games they play, in nature they enjoy, or 
in industrial activities which interest them. 

It may seem advisable, for a time, to provide that this 
initial integration lead to final disintegration. That is, it 
may be well at the close of the elementary school course, 
or perhaps at the close of certain grades, to disintegrate 
the studies of industrial activities and classify them in 
terms of arithmetic, geography, language, etc. This pro- 
cedure would be a compromise with traditional practice. 
There are, however, two serious objections to this. Pupils 
closing their elementary school work with such a classification 

^Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D., Administration of Public Education 
in the United States, page 330. 



252 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

would go out into life which is not experienced or viewed 
in terms of school subjects. To be equipped with such 
formal classification of real life is therefore not essential. 
A second objection is that with this final disintegration of 
school work into forms of traditional school studies as the 
culmination of school work, the study of life activities would 
be conducted merely as a means of acquiring information 
to be classified into the traditional common branches. 

Organization in terms of life. Were school work organ- 
ized strictly in terms of life acts instead of school arts, there 
would need be no problem of final or initial integration. 
To pigeonhole life activities in terms of reading, writing, 
arithmetic, etc., in the school and then to translate them back 
again in the form of " applications " in real life, are wholly 
due to the artificiality of our elementary education. It is 
entirely possible to look upon a given community as indi- 
viduals pigeonholed into groups, as bankers, farmers, 
teachers, preachers, miners, tonsorial artists, etc. A more 
sane and social view would look upon the community as 
composed of citizens banking, farming, teaching, preaching, 
mining, barbering; but first and last citizens. In school 
it is possible to study the " arithmetic " of banking, the 
" geography " of farming, the " spelling " of teachers, etc. 
A more sane and social view would provide for a study of 
people in farming, banking, mining, etc. School work is too 
differentiated from real life and too disconnected within itself. 

Supplementary Readings 

Baglet, W. C. Educational Values, pages 107-127. 

Butler, N. M. The Meaning of Education, pages 37-66. 

Davis, C. O. " Principles and Plans for Reorganizing Secondary Educar 

tion," in Johnston's High School Education, pages 67-105. 
Dewey, J. Democracy and Education, pages 271-292. 
DuTTON, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administration of Public Education 

in the United States, pages 314-355. 



THE CURRICULUM AND ORGANIZATION 253 

Englis, a. "Reorganization of the High Schools." School Review, Vol. 

23, pages 307-318, 1915. 
Hantjs, p. H. Educational Aims and Educational Values, pages 1-21. 
Heck, W. H. Mental Discipline, pages 110-129. 
McMtjrkt, F. M. How to Study, pages 85-134. 
Snedden, D. Educational Readjustment, pages 130-153. 

General References 

Bachman, F. p. Problems in Elementary School Administration, 

Baglet, W. C. Classroom Management. 

BouBNE, R. S. The Gary Schools. 

CuBBEBLEY, E. P. School Organization and Administration. 

Dewey, J. The Child and the Curriculum. 

Report : Economy of Time. Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 38, 1913. 

Report : Reorganization of Secondary Education. Bureau of Education, 

Bulletin No. 41, 1913. 
Strayeb, G. D., and Bachman, F. P. Organization and Aministration. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Twelve 

Work and leisure in real life supply a problem new to the schools. 
Work and leisure are two phases of civilized life. 
The occupation of workingmen in leisure time is a social 

problem. 
Young people must learn to distinguish wholesome leisure 

from destructive idleness. 
Thus, instruction in leisure becomes a school problem. 
The traditional school stresses work and neglects leisure. 
Schoolroom occupation is scheduled as work. 
Recess is relaxation, not leisure. 
Ignorance of wholesome leisure is the leading evil effect of such 

a program. 
Schools should have a work and leisure schedule. 

Pupils must learn to work and to enjoy leisure by participating 

in both work and leisure. 
Work and leisure must be provided in schoolroom studies. 
The time schedule must be very flexible. 
The work-leisure schedule secures favorable effects. 

The schoolroom attitude of pupils in industry and discipline 

is much improved. 
A large contribution is made to home life. 
Juvenile offenses in the community are lessened. 
Culture and refinement are offered to the masses. 



254 



CHAPTER TWELVE 

The Curriculum and Work and Leisure 

PRINCIPLE FIVE 

The curriculum should lead the pupil to appreciate both work 
and leisure and to develop a habit of engaging in both. 

WORK AND LEISURE IN REAL LIFE 

Two phases of life. " All work and no play makes Jack 
a dull boy." This implies that the boy — and the girl, too 
— must be provided with work and play if life is to be suc- 
cessful. " A day for toil, an hour for sport " (Emerson) 
has a similar implication and also indicates a distribution 
of time which must doubtless greatly vary according to 
circumstances. " The law of nature is that a certain quan- 
tity of work is necessary to produce a certain quantity of 
good. If you want knowledge you must toil for it ; if food, 
you must toil for it ; and if pleasure, you must toil for it " 
(Ruskin). Thus toil is essential for securing every good 
we wish, even leisure. Many would infer that leisure, if 
desired, might be secured through toil; it need not be re- 
garded essential. In a later chapter on play the position 
is taken that play is as essential as work in the lives of little 
people. Similarly, it is here claimed that human life con- 
sists of two phases, work and leisure. Neither may be 
regarded as a mere means for the attainment of the other. 
*' In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beauti- 
ful and ennobling in all civilized men's eyes." ^ The en- 
nobling effects of wholesome work speak for themselves. 

It is not important that effort be made to define lei- 
sure exactly. It is reasonably well understood. However, 

^ Veblen, T., The Theory of the Leisure Class, page 38. 
255 



256 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

caution must be taken that leisure be not identified with 
idleness. Idleness is base ; ^ leisure is honorable. Nor is 
leisure as here used synonymous with recreation. The real 
purpose of recreation is to regain energy needed to carry on 
one's work. The same may be said of rest and relaxation. 
Overwork, resulting in fatigue, makes a demand for rest, 
relaxation, or recreation. Fatigue is not a prerequisite for 
leisure. The leisure class is sometimes contrasted with the 
laboring class. If distinctions are not too closely drawn, 
real leisure is found among the laboring classes. But such 
leisure must not be regarded as the reward of labor. The 
laboring man, as every other man, merits leisure even before 
his work is begun. Leisure is simply one phase of civilized 
life ; work is another phase. The man who has no time for 
leisure is as truly out of tune with modern life as he who does 
no work but spends his time in idleness. 

It is interesting to note how extensively leisure is now 
recognized as one phase of life. The home allows its chil- 
dren much more freedom from work than earlier — and 
parents take more of this same freedom. Social settlements 
in most of our large cities show by their work their recog- 
nition of the leisure hours of life as more than mere periods 
for recreation after toil. The Social Center Guild of America 
was organized by the People's Institute of New York " for 
the redemption of leisure." The church and affiliated or- 
ganizations have joined with others in this movement. In 
referring to the work of the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, a writer says, " No longer is the gymnasium an 
index to the prayer-meeting. It has values of its own. . . . 
The social parlors were good for ends of their own and not 
merely as a place for hearing the distant sound of hymns." ^ 

^ Idleness is classed as a physiological cause for truancy and delinquency. 
See Travis, T., The Young Malefactor, page 142. 

2 Wilson, W. H., Evolution of the Country Community, page 195. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 257 

Workingmen in spare time. Workingmen have always 
had some spare time, but in recent years the amount of 
spare time has increased as hours of the labor day have 
decreased.^ There is little chance that workingmen while 
at work will become malefactors in society, but there is 
considerable danger of this in periods of idleness. It is 
usually the idler that makes trouble. The character of a 
man may be quite safely judged by what he does when free 
from employment. Here a social problem arises. Society 
is under obligation, not merely to judge a man as to 
his behavior in leisure time, but so to help him spend 
that time that judgment of him be more and more favor- 
able. That is, society is under obligation to contribute 
as it can to helping men spend their spare time in a whole- 
some way. This social problem becomes virtually one of 
helping to substitute wholesome leisure for destructive 
idleness. 

The study referred to in the footnote shows that about 
sixty per cent of all these workingmen patronize the 
movies. Those who receive the lowest wages go oftenest 
and patronize the nickel shows rather than those of higher 
class. Thirty per cent of the men patronize the saloon. 
It is encouraging to note in this study that reading news- 
papers occupies a larger percentage of spare time than does 
any other single feature. But it is also readily discovered 
that those who have shorter hours of labor spend a larger 
percentage of time in reading newspapers, magazines, and 
books. Those whose working hours are greater are proba- 
bly the lower class of workingmen. " The men who work 

^ In a study of how one thousand workingmen spend their spare time sum- 
marized in the Outlook for April 4, 1914, the writer claims that he proves as 
"untrue the oft repeated statement that shorter working hours afford more 
leisure time for men to dissipate and make themselves less fit for work. 
Long hours causing over-fatigue seem to so lower the vitality of the working 
man that at the end of the day's work he naturally gravitates toward the 
saloon." 



258 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

a less number of hours per day use their spare time more 
wisely and more uniformly than do men in the longer hour 
groups." 

Youth and the city streets. In her studies of youth in 
the city, Jane Addams has pointed out that boys and girls 
must have their amusements. The misfortune of the situa- 
tion is that most of these young people find their en- 
joyment in that which is unwholesome. Commercial in- 
terests take advantage of the spare time of these young 
people, who have not been instructed in the wholesome use 
of leisure. 

In their studies of the gang. Puffer and Forbush ^ have 
shown how boys use their spare time. Too much of it is 
spent in unwholesome activities. These boys have not 
been taught the difference between wholesome leisure and 
destructive idleness. Their tastes and habits, unguided, 
have developed in the wrong direction. 

Leisure as a school problem. The amount of vice and 
crime which is committed when people are free from em- 
ployment clearly indicates that people have not learned 
to use well their spare time. If it is a problem for society 
to eliminate evil — or at least lessen it — it surely becomes 
a school problem to instruct youth in the use of time when 
they are not employed. If the school assumes its responsi- 
bility for instructing young people in the practical affairs 
of life, it should also recognize that leisure is one phase of 
life and that children should be taught ways and means of 
using that leisure well. In many parts of the country, the 
public has done much toward encouraging wholesome 
leisure. Public parks and playgrounds invite young people 
and their elders to convert idle spare time into wholesome 
leisure. Public museums and libraries offer strong induce- 

1 Puffer, J. A., The Boy and Bis Gang; Forbush, W. B., The Boy 

Problem. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 259 

ments to those who have the taste and the capacity to profit 
by such provisions. Here is the opportunity for the schooL 
Instruction in the manner of spending leisure may seem a 
pure fad, a mere decorative function of the school ; but when 
viewed as a social problem, a means of helping young people 
to adjust themselves to real life, the case becomes highly 
important. 

WORK IN THE TRADITIONAL SCHOOL 

Schoolroom occupation as work. Most teachers in public 
schools use daily programs for guidance. There is con- 
siderable variation in these in different schools. A collec- 
tion of such programs provides data for an interesting study. 
It would be practically impossible to tabulate a large number 
of these so as to show attention given to work and to leisure. 
Two have been selected from many that have been collected 
and are here presented as typical. 



SCHEDULE FOB GRADE IV, UNIVERSITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF 

IOWA, 1918-1919 



Time 


Monday 


Tuesday 


Wednesday 


Thursday 


Friday 


9.00-9.30 


Arith. 


Arith. 


Arith. 


Arith. 


Art 


9.30-10.00 


Reading 


Reading 


Reading 


Reading 


Art 


10.00-10.15 


Writing 


Writing 


Use of Ref. 


Writing 


Use of Ref. 


10.15-10.45 


Hygiene 


Phys. Ed. 


Hygiene 


Phys. Ed. 


Hygiene 


10.45-11.00 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


11.00-11.30 


History 


History 


History 


History 


Reading 


11.30-11.50 


Lang. 


Lang. 


Lang. 


Lang. 


Lang. 


1.20-1.40 


Music 


Music 


Geog. 


Music 


Geog. 


1.40-2.00 


Geog. 


Geog. 


Spell. 


Geog. 


SpeU. 


2.00-2.20 


Ref. 


Spell. 


Arith. 


Spell. 


Science 


2.20-2.40 


Spell. 


Reading 


Science 


Science 


Arith. 


2.40-3.05 


Lit. 


Lit. 


Lit. 


Lit. 


Lit. 



260 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



SCHEDULE OF RECITATION AND WORK, WOODSBORO, MARYLAND, 1912 
AND 1913 



Grade 


Monday 


Tuesday 


Wednesday 


Thubsday 


Feidat 


7th 


Geography 


Agriculture 


Geography 


Agriculture 


Geography, Map D. 1 




Mental 


Arithmetic 


Mental 


Arithmetic 


Mental 




Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




U. S. Hist. 


Md. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


Md. Hist. 


U. S. Hist., El. 1 and 3 




Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 




Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar, Comp. 4 




Physiology 


Civics 


Physiology 


Civics 






Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


6th 


Geography 


Agriculture 


Geography 


Agriculture 


Geog. Map D. 1 




Mental 


Arithmetic 


Mental 


Arithmetic 


Mental 




Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




U. S. Hist. 


Md. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


Md. Hist. 


U. S. Hist., El. 1 and 3 




Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 




Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar, Comp. 4 




Physiology 




Physiology 








Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spellinj; 


5th 


Geography 


Geography 


Geography 


Geography 


Geography 




Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 




Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist., El. 1 and 3 




Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 




Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar, Comp. 1 




Arithmetic 


Physiology 


Arithmetic 


Physiology 


Or. Arith. 




Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


4th 


Geography 


Geography 


Geography 


Geography 


Geog., Map D. 1 




Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 


Prac. Arith. 




Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist. 


U. S. Hist.. El. 1 and 3 




Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 


Noon 




Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar, Comp. 1 




Arithmetic 


Physiology 


Arithmetic 


Physiology 


Or. Arith. 




Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 




Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 


Spelling 



Rules fob Ordeb 

1. Oolden Rule. 

2. Quiet. 

3. Observe, think, study, and work, during school hours. 

4. Play, romp, and jump, on playground at intermissions only. 

5. Move quietly and orderly at all times, within the school building, 

6. Be respectful to the old and kind to the young and weak. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 261 

Rules for Study 

1. All mental lessona (meaning memory lessons) shall and must be prepared at 
home. 

2. Practical mathematics may be worked in school, but can be done at home, pro- 
vided the memory lessons are prepared first. 

3. All pupils should have a home schedule for reference and for use of parents, 
who should be interested enough to see that the children comply with it at all times or 
they cannot expect much progress. 

The six Rules for Order and the three Rules for Study 
used at Woodsboro, Maryland, probably indicate common 
practice in schools, though such rules may not, in general, 
be so formulated. " Observe, think, study, and work, 
during school hours " characterizes the conduct of the 
school, at least as intended by the teacher. Work, work, 
work are three keynotes of the school, both as planned by 
the teacher and as understood by the pupils. The very 
na.ture of the subject matter constituting the various studies 
scarcely admits of anything other than work : spelling, 
arithmetic, grammar, geography, etc. Serious effort is 
expected in each subject by every pupil. But even if 
pupils do clearly understand that serious work is expected 
during school hours, they find some time for leisure. They 
show this by quietly gazing into space or laying their heads 
upon the desks and taking a rest, though they are not tired. 
They also find some time for play — even against the rules. 
Play will come out, usually in some form of mischief. But 
such leisure and play are not a provision of the school. 
Work alone is planned for school hours. 

It is probable that this plan for work, to the exclusion of 
play or leisure, in the school program is due largely to an un- 
conscious adherence on the part of school officials to custom 
rather than to a thoughtful selection of work as alone merit- 
ing a place in schoolroom occupations. 

Recess and iioon. " Play, romp, and jump, on playground 
at intermissions only." The intermissions are provided for 
leisure, rest, and recreation. Again, the intention of school 



262 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

oflBcials and the impression upon school pupils seem to be 
in agreement. The recess period is a period of relief from 
study and recitation. Its real purpose is, not to provide 
the pupils with instruction and exercise for the development 
of better play, but merely to insure better work during 
school hours. There are at least two evidences of this. 
One is the almost universal custom of scheduling the recess 
midway between the opening of school and the noon inter- 
mission. If the afternoon session is three hours in length, 
a recess is usually scheduled midway between noon and 
the closing of school. Better evidence of this purpose of 
the recess is seen in the fact that the play activities of recess 
periods are not under the guidance of the teacher or school 
officials. Pupils are left free except when they transgress 
the rules of order or intrude upon the rights of others. In 
some schools a playground director is employed or the 
teachers take charge. But such schools are the exception, 
and even in such schools the presence of playground director 
or teacher is too generally for the purpose of preventing 
disorder rather than improving the play activities. 

It may safely be concluded that rarely is the occupation 
of the school planned for other than work. The schools 
give almost no attention to the leisure phase of life pointed 
out in the previous section. 

Effect upon pupils. Such a regime cannot but have a 
marked influence upon the attitude of children toward both 
work and leisure. An immediate effect is that pupils are 
disposed to take as much recess as possible and do as little 
work as possible. Perhaps this statement is too strong, 
but it will be generally admitted that pupils are glad when 
recess time appears and sorry when it closes. This might 
mean that pupils prefer play to work; recess is more de- 
lightful than study. Much depends upon the nature of 
the work. " Good fun it is to yoke up the calves and play 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 263 

work; there is not a boy on the farm but would rather 
drive a yoke of oxen at real work." ^ Recess arranged as 
rehef cannot but give pupils the impression that schoolroom 
study and recitation are recognized by even the school 
authorities as either too hard for the pupils or too unpleasant 
to pursue without this relaxation for the purpose of renewing 
energy and reviving interest. Pupils do really become tired 
in following the usual schedule, and recess has seemed — 
still seems — necessary. If school authorities are convinced 
that the work of school hours, indicated by the typical 
schedules above, is to be continued, undoubtedly the recess 
must continue — and continue as a relief period. It is 
probable, however, that pupils become tired by reason of 
restraint and work which is to them unsatisfactory, rather 
than as a result of strenuous effort. Elsewhere in this 
volume it is pointed out that were the school work more 
suited to the tastes and abilities of the pupils the recess 
as now used would not be needed. 

The traditional recess probably has a later effect upon 
pupils of no less, and perhaps of more, importance than 
that noted in the previous paragraph. The studies referred 
to in the first section of this chapter indicate that the pool- 
room, the saloon, the movies, and other common forms of 
amusement are generally sought as a relief from unwelcome 
toil. The traditional school recess must not, of course, 
be held wholly responsible for this relation between toil 
and relaxation in adult life. There is, however, a very close 
correspondence. If school life and habits are to influence 
later life and habits, may not that effect appear in this par- 
ticular as well as in any other ? In early life children quite 
generally learn to consider work as something unwelcome, 
to be relieved at times by most welcome relaxation. Thus 
work becomes irksome and recess periods serve to make 
1 Warner, C. D., Being a Boy, page 2. 



264 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

such work tolerable. The habit of regarding work as toler- 
able only in anticipation of a period of amusement is not 
conducive to the best attitude toward work or to the best 
selection of the best relaxation. 

Just here is another serious defect in our traditional al- 
ternation of school work and school recess. Pupils are left 
ignorant of what wholesome leisure may be substituted for 
unwholesome idleness. The school recess does not provide 
instruction in the means of spending leisure time. Why do 
74 per cent of boys' gangs spend their leisure time in pred- 
atory activities — stealing, injuring property, etc. ? Why 
do 70 per cent of these gangs engage in fighting .f* What is 
the explanation for 67 per cent of these gangs finding their 
fun in plaguing people and 45 per cent in smoking ? ^ Why 
do 60 per cent of laboring men patronize the movies in their 
spare time, and 30 per cent the saloon ? ^ Why do so many 
of our city boys and girls attend to so great an extent the 
public dance halls and other places of degrading amuse- 
ment ? ^ One answer is suggested by Jane Addams. We 
must recognize the spontaneous joy and the clamor for 
pleasure exhibited by these young people when freed from 
work. We must take note of how private enterprise has 
attempted to meet the situation by providing a great variety 
of places for amusement; but these places are commer- 
cialized and the moral effect is detrimental. Miss Addams 
suggests that the public provide places for wholesome 
leisure. Public parks, playgrounds, libraries, museums — 
these are having their wholesome influence ; they are educa- 
tive to all who attend. Experience is a good teacher, but 
the process is slow. Here is the opportunity and responsi- 
bility for the school. The traditional school makes no 

^ Puffer, J. A., The Boy and His Gang, page 40. 

2 Bevans, G. E., Outlook for April 4, 1914. 

3 Addams, Jane, The Spirit of Youth and the City Street. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 265 

provision for definite instruction in the wholesome spending 
of leisure time. This is a problem for the new school. 

A WORK AND LEISURE SCHEDULE 

Instruction in work and leisure. In view of the social 
and industrial conditions pointed out earlier in this chapter, 
it seems clear that the modern school must feel under obliga- 
tion to help boys and girls do better in both work and leisure. 
It has been twenty years since Professor Hanus wrote, " To 
live completely means to be as useful as possible and to be 
happy. By usefulness is meant service, i.e., any activity 
which promotes the material or the spiritual interests of 
mankind, one or both. To be happy one must enjoy both 
his work and his leisure." ^ Few school men or writers 
have expressed this problem as an important one for schools. 
It is, therefore, not surprising that the school program is 
essentially one of work. Helping children spend leisure 
time and preparing them to spend well their leisure later in 
life have not become a part of schoolroom occupation. How 
leisure time may be well spent is a large problem for the 
student of community welfare. " All work and no play 
makes Jack a dull boy " is not pure fiction. Play, amuse- 
ment, and leisure represent one phase of life — both child 
and adult — precisely as work represents another phase. 
The former is a biological and social necessity as the latter 
is an economical and educational necessity. Once clearly 
recognize these two phases of life and it is evident that 
the school can adequately help boys and girls only by in- 
structing them in both work and leisure. 

This does not mean that courses — studies — in work 

and leisure be given and that children study about leisure. 

Children learn to work by working. They learn to employ 

well their leisure time by being provided with leisure and 

^ Hanus, P. H., Educational Aims and Educational Values, page 5. 



266 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

with guidance in using that leisure. The curriculum pro- 
posed in this volume is an attempt to provide for both work 
and leisure. The schedule is not analyzed to provide for 
alternation of these two as though such alternation were 
essential. Nor, indeed, has an attempt been made to de- 
termine the relative time and attention to these two phases 
of school occupation. It will probably be generally accepted 
that among the younger children time for work is less and 
for leisure more ; among older pupils the relation is reversed. 
It must also be recognized that the line of demarcation 
between activities of work and activities of leisure is not 
absolute. What is work to one may be leisure to another. 
Close distinctions are not necessary. 

Provision for work. In Chapter Thirteen one subject, ob- 
servation, is presented and in Chapter Sixteen handwork is 
described as another subject. These two subjects are 
regarded as work for the pupils. Observation is a study of 
the pupil's environment for the purpose of better adjust- 
ment. Adjustment is very complex, for human life and 
its environment are very complex. And we must not expect 
that adequate adjustment is to be acquired only through 
the studies outlined in Chapter Seventeen. However, the 
most important step in adjusting oneself to his environment 
is becoming informed about that environment. This, in the 
main, calls for conscious effort guided by purpose. This is 
work. The subject of handwork is also of the nature of 
work rather than leisure. In some schools it is used as an 
attractive element, affording entertainment and relief from 
work; but such a purpose for handwork is denied a place 
in the curriculum herein proposed; yet too close a dis- 
tinction must not be insisted upon.^ There are times when 
some handwork of a purely leisure character is done. For 
example, in connection with certain play activities a boy 
^ See pages 307-308 for distinction between play and work. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 267 

wishes to use a clock-spring motor for propelling a toy boat. 
Handwork is needed to construct the boat or make necessary 
adjustments. However, in the main, handwork as a school 
study should be an activity in which conscious effort is 
guided by purpose. 

Observation ^ and handwork ^ provide work for pupils. 
In the lower grades about two and one half hours each day 
may be devoted profitably to this work. In the upper grades 
about three and one half hours may be devoted to work. 

Provision for leisure. Play ^ and the enjoyment of 
stories ^ are arranged for the leisure of pupils. As a chapter 
is devoted later to each of these topics, a mere mention here 
is suflBcient. 

In normal life out of school play occupies a large portion 
of the children's time. A large share of the children's time 
is leisure time. Some students of play advocate a rather 
definite arrangement of games and play activities accord- 
ing to the age or development periods of children. There 
is probably some reasonableness in this, but there is great 
danger that such a program belongs more to men's theory 
than to children's activities. However, it may safely be 
said that children in the lower grades are disposed to play 
a great variety of games, while older children play com- 
paratively few games, but spend much time in various 
occupations of really play character. Thus, in the first 
two or three grades, definite provision is made for playing 
games, strictly for the fun and childish satisfaction in such 
activities. Emphasis is upon present enjoyment. Effort 
is constantly expended to help the pupils play better than 
they ever played before, for the sake of increased pleasure. 
Incidentally, these pupils are thus preparing themselves to 
better enjoy their games and plays in later leisure time. 
These playful occupations of older children, when games are 
^ These four studies are presented in Chapters Thirteen to Sixteen. 



268 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

less prominent, are called play activities.^ Such play- 
activities are seen when boys tinker with motors, machines, 
old clocks, Yale locks, and the like. Girls amuse themselves 
in modifications of household activities; they play tea 
parties, doll families, and school. And there are play 
activities in which boys and girls engage together : making 
collections of insects, flowers, and seeds ; making scrapbooks 
of stamps, cartoons, bits of humor ; solving mechanical and 
geometrical puzzles; acting charades and dramatics. 

Folk dancing and marching, with special emphasis on 
the folk dancing, clearly contribute to the leisure time of 
pupils. Girls greatly enjoy folk dancing and boys enjoy 
marching — especially with suitable music. Boys and girls 
together find real pleasure in both the dancing and march- 
ing. Both of these may be classed here as play, or of the 
play activity character. 

In the lower grades one hour and a half daily may advisedly 
be devoted to these forms of spending leisure. In the upper 
grades this time may be considerably reduced. This leisure 
time must not be identified with recess periods and noonings. 
The proper spending of leisure time is a problem for school 
study. Leisure thus belongs to school occupation. 

Another form of spending leisure time is found in the en- 
joyment of stories. Little children enjoy Mother Goose 
stories ; boys and girls read storybooks ; over ninety per 
cent 2 of workmen read the newspapers. A very large 
portion of the reading is for the enjoyment of leisure time. 
Emphasis in the lower grades should be upon the enjoyment 
of the story rather than learning to read for the purpose of 
reading later. In the upper grades pupils should be helped 
to enjoy the story instead of studying the selection as a 
basis for language work or for supplementary information in 
geography, history, and the like. This viewpoint of the use of 

1 See pages 323-326. ^ Bevans, G. E., in Outlook for April 4, 1914. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 269 

the story for leisure calls for a marked change in the content 
of our school reading books, in the method of treatment, in 
the nature of home work, and in the attitude of the pupils.^ 

The singing of songs and the study of pictures belong to the 
story group. Songs are stories expressed in music. Pictures 
are stories told without words. Pencil drawings and water- 
color representations, when not used as means of illustrating 
other studies, belong to the story group. Stories in a foreign 
language, in German, French, or Spanish, may well have a 
place here. Care must be taken not to make this a study of 
the foreign language for possible later use. Such a study 
would be work, not leisure. This enjoyment of stories, songs, 
and pictures merits as much as an hour and a half each day. 

Time schedule. Care must be taken not to be arbitrary 
in the division of time between work and leisure. The length 
of the school day plays a large part in arranging the time 
schedule. At the University Elementary School work, in- 
cluding the two subjects, observation and handwork, occu- 
pies two and one half hours a day in the lower grades, and 
three and one half in the upper grades ; leisure, including 
playing games, play activities, folk dances, stories, songs, 
and pictures, occupies three hours a day in the lower grades 
and two hours a day in the upper grades. This schedule may 
be tabulated as follows : 

9.00-10.30 

9.00-10.30 

11.00-12.00 

3.00-4.00 



Leisure. 



Observation 


. Lower grades 




Upper grades 


Handwork . . 
e. . Folk dances 


. All grades 


Marches 
Free play 
Games . . . 
Stories 


. All grades 
. Lower grades 


Songs . . 
Pictures 


. All grades 


Play activities . 


. Upper grades 



10.30-11.00 

11.00-12.00 

1.30- 3.00 



^ Further discussion of this is given in Chapter Fifteen. 



270 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

This is not the place to discuss the organization of a 
schedule. For this see the preceding chapter. But it 
should be here noted that the above schedule is not arranged 
to provide alternation of work periods and leisure periods. 
Neither in the nature of the occupation nor in the arrange- 
ment of the schedule is any attention given to providing 
relaxation or recreation on the basis of fatigue in the occu- 
pations called work. Work and leisure periods may be 
arranged for quite other purposes, or even by chance. This 
flexible schedule may be adjusted very easily to the depart- 
mental organizations of schools. One important considera- 
tion is that periods for both work and leisure should be 
quite long. \ 

EFFECTS OF WORK-LEISURE SCHEDULE 

Panacea impossible. Care must be taken not to ask too 
much of the dual schedule proposed. It cannot relieve the 
school of all its ills. It is advocated because experiment 
seems to indicate much of value in this plan. The effects 
are not as definite as may be asked. They are not, as yet, 
of a quantitative nature subject to exact measurement. 
Indeed, the pupil need not always be aware of whether he 
is occupied in work or leisure activities. Usually, however, 
he will be well aware of this, and later will appreciate the 
difference between work and leisure yet more. Four effects 
are here presented. 

Schoolroom attitude. A pupil may well feel a difference 
in tension in the two periods of activities. A pupil is study- 
ing the topic of Transportation in Grade VI. A definite 
problem may be : How do ships pass over the hills in passing 
through the Panama Canal? To the pupil this study is 
work. Conscious effort with definite purpose is evident. 
He seems to be facing certain difficulties which must be 
overcome. There seems to be a certain necessity which 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 271 

drives him on to this task.^ In this work the pupil need 
not be judged as putting forth effort reluctantly, as though 
he were driven against his will. His attitude would probably 
be just that if he were not genuinely interested in his work. 
There is insufficient reason to generalize to the effect that 
pupils dislike work but do like play. They thoroughly 
enjoy work if that work be suitable to their stage of develop- 
ment and interests. Thus it may be expected that, without 
lessening their enjoyment, they show a more serious demeanor 
in work than they do in leisure. In work they show a sense 
of responsibility for certain definite achievement. In lei- 
sure there is evidence of a feeling of freedom to act under 
no restraint or constraint. One pupil might be reading 
" The Great Stone Face " in his study of character ; to him 
it is work. Another pupil might, under quite other circum- 
stances, read this essay as a pastime ; to him it is leisure. 
In work tension is strengthened ; in leisure tension is relieved. 
Closely related to this more-or-less tension is an im- 
portant schoolroom attitude known as deportment. " Poor " 
deportment is largely due to the difficulties the pupil ex- 
periences in adjusting himself to conditions quite foreign 
to his nature. The character of the subject matter has much to 
do with the pupil's attitude. Just this is emphasized through- 
out this volume. And yet, were all the school subject 
matter in accordance with the pupil's taste, continued stress 
of work would be against his nature. Subject matter 
adapted to tastes, abilities, and purposes of pupils, and 
arranged with due regard for effort in work and release in 
leisure, will in large measure forestall all problems of deport- 
ment. Too much attention has been given to schoolroom 
deportment; too little attention has been paid to the con- 
ditions that have occasioned the problem of deportment. 

^ Compare view of Kirkpatrick, E. A., The Individual in the Making, 
pages 18-24. 



272 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Another aspect of schoolroom attitude is in what may- 
be termed " industry." By this is meant especially the 
pupils' disposition to work, to study, to play, to enjoy their 
leisure. To provide children with both work and leisure 
as schoolroom occupation is to meet them on their own 
natural ground. And they appreciate this. Initiative, 
self-direction, and persistency, discussed in a previous 
chapter as elements in efficiency, are fostered in pupils by 
this provision for work and leisure each day. Neither is 
treated as a means or reward in relation to the other. They 
are two phases of the natural life of children. 

Both parents and the general public expect children to 
be " disciplined " in school. This is another aspect of 
schoolroom attitude affected by the work-leisure schedule. 
The old notion of instantaneous obedience to commands 
of those placed in authority still prevails, in practice, though 
allowed to pass in theory. Modern conceptions of social 
betterment are not yet widely effective in school manage- 
ment. It is, of course, readily recognized that school 
discipline has been much loosened in recent years. This 
is largely due to the discovery that groups of pupils can be 
controlled with much less discipline. But discipline is thus 
viewed too narrowly. Compliance with some rules and 
habits of obedience to. some commands may be good so far 
as they go. But discipline must extend much farther. It 
must include a training in self-direction according to recog- 
nized needs. Children must learn to be their own disci- 
plinarians. This is scarcely possible under the old regime. 
Obedience begets obedience of like nature. Again, it must 
be noted that the subject matter studied in school is funda- 
mental. The old formal studies called for the discipline of 
obedience.^ In real life subject matter, i.e., experience, 

1 Compare Bagley, W. C, School Discipline, and Holmes, Edmond, 
What Is and What Might Be, pages 3-86. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 273 

under high standards provides good discipline. A similar 
regime in school will be as effective. 

Home improvements. Much has been said in recent 
years about the decadence of the American home due to 
the influence of modern industry and modern amusements. 
During the day the members of the family are at work, 
scattered in various places of industry as ability and oppor- 
tunity provide. The home table is exchanged for the lunch 
counter; this may be expedient. Evenings and holidays 
are spent in amusement centers, according to the various 
stages of development and interests of members of the 
family. The home is deprived of leisure. The members 
of the family spend leisure in public places. No one agency 
can be held wholly responsible for such a lamentable de- 
struction of the noblest of institutions — the family. No 
institution can presume to wholly remedy such sorry social 
conditions. But the public school may be held responsible 
for a considerable contribution to improvement. A family 
scattered for work is not so widely separated as when it is 
scattered for leisure. The school has aimed to prepare 
children for their work. It has done but little to contrib- 
ute to the improvement of leisure. In recognizing leisure 
as a phase of life, and the problem of leisure in home and 
society, the school should strive to contribute no less to 
training children for higher forms of leisure than for more 
effective work. Provision in the school schedule for these 
two phases of life cannot but acquaint children with possi- 
bilities of leisure as well as of work. If the home is to be 
helped the leisure of the school must be similar to leisure 
needed in the home. This may be found in literature, 
music, art, games, and a variety of social activities. Due 
emphasis upon these in school will do much to develop in 
children a taste for such higher forms of leisure, in place of 
the more exciting and too generally injurious public streets. 



274 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

playhouses, clubs, pool rooms, and the like. It must be 
recognized that some young people are without real homes 
and must spend leisure in public places. This situation 
calls strongly upon the public to provide wholesome enter- 
tainment. But this does not lessen the opportunity and 
responsibility of the school to contribute much to the im- 
provement of leisure at home. r??T 

Protection from evil. It has been too generally assumed 
by adults that juvenile offenses are due to various forms of 
delinquency in these " young malefactors." A careful 
student of this problem has concluded that " at least 90 
per cent and probably 98 per cent of first court offenders 
are normal." ^ The nonfunctioning home is pointed out 
as the chief cause for these juvenile offenses. Greatly 
complicated social conditions disrupt the home. The chil- 
dren suffer ; but the parents, belonging to a previous school 
generation, cannot be held wholly responsible. They are 
incapable of inventing ways and means of occupying their 
children in leisure time. Here the school should stand in 
large measure in loco parentis. To develop in children the 
habit of finding wholesome occupation when not at work 
should be more and more a considerable function of the 
school. Such schooling cannot but contribute much to 
preventing juvenile offenses by occupying children when 
offenses are usually committed, that is, in leisure time. 

Culture and refinement. President Eliot has pointed 
out how the idea of the cultivated man has undergone 
substantial changes in the last century. Earlier the literary 
and poetic imagination was one essential ; now the scientific 
imagination is as imperative. Earlier the educated gentle- 
man of leisure was regarded as one of culture and refine- 
ment ; now the man of manual skill and business efficiency 
is admitted to this class. This change must be looked upon 
^ Travis, T., The Young Malefactor, page xxvi. 



THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AND LEISURE 275 

with favor, but with caution. There is danger that this 
change carry us to the point of regarding the efficient man 
of affairs as cultured, without reference to his mode of spend- 
ing his leisure time. "... true culture means that a 
man has a mind furnished with many things beyond and 
above the matters which concern his livelihood ; that he has 
breadth of view, knowledge of the world, skill in dealing with 
men, ability to foresee and intelligence to grapple with the 
complex problems which meet one every day." ^ These 
complex problems are of leisure as well as of work. Boys 
and girls in school become refined and cultured when they 
learn to work effectively and enjoy a wholesome leisure. 

Supplementary Readings 

Addams, Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Street, pages 3-21, 107-135. 
BoBBiTT, J. F. Education for Leisure Occupations. See Superintendent's 

Report, South Bend, Indiana, 1914. 
Davenport, E. Education for Efficiency, pages 78-89. 
Dewey, J. Democracy and Education, pages 293-305. 
Eliot, C. W. "The New Definition of the Cultivated Man," in Education 

for Efficiency, pages 33-55. 
FoRBUSH, W. B. The Coming Generation, pages 241-270. 
James, W. Talks to Teachers, pages 199-228. 
Nearing, S. Social Adjustment, pages 161-210. 
RuEDiGER, W. C. "Avocational Guidance," in Johnston's The Modem 

High School, pages 629-653. 
Wilson, W. H. Evolution of the Country Community, pages 189-207. 

General References 

BowEN, Louise. Safeguards for City Youth, pages 12-51. 

Curtis, H. S. Play and Recreation. 

Henderson, E. N. Principles of Education, pages 383-426. 

Travis, T. The Young Malefactor, pages 100-183. 

Veblen, T. The Theory of the Leisure Class. 

Zueblin, C. American Municipal Progress, pages 228-325. 

^ Munroe, J. P., New Demands in Education, page 130. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Thirteen 

Observation of one's environment is proposed as one of the four 

subjects in the elementary school curriculum. 
Observation plays a large role in the lives of children. 

Children become acquainted with their environment. 

Observation becomes a means to adjustment. 
Observation has been slighted in the traditional school. 

"Nature study" has been abused by its misuse as a method. 

Geography fails to meet present needs for social adjustment. 

Arithmetic does not touch real life. 
Observation is an elementary form of industrial education. 

Vocational training is demanded for vocational progress. 

Industrial education improves citizenship. 
Current provisions for elementary industrial education are inade- 
quate. 
All pupils are in need of industrial intelligence. 

Industrial intelligence is a first step in vocational guidance. 

Efficient citizenship calls for industrial intelligence. 
Observation is proposed as a continuous study from Grade I to 

Grade VIII inclusive. 
The method of study demands : 

That pupils acquire much information ; 

That pupils participate freely in discussion ; 

That "Three R" subject matter be used as a means. 
Results of this observation carry over directly into home and com- 
munity life. 

Observation contributes to sympathetic intelligence. 

Three-R intelligence is made more effective. 



276 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

School Studies — Observation 

THE PLACE OF OBSERVATION IN THE CURRICULUM 

A substitute for traditional subjects. In no place in this 
volume is it proposed that pupils should not learn in school 
to read, write, and cipher. It is contended, however, that 
a better content for study can be provided ; and in the study 
of this content pupils will acquire the ability to read, write, 
and cipher as well or better than in the traditional school. 
Observation, as one of four such studies, is presented in this 
chapter. The reader is asked to consider the pupil pursuing 
this study in school without his thinking of reading, writing, 
or ciphering; but the reader is also asked to note to what 
extent and in what manner the pupil does read, write, and 
cipher. 

Relative time allowed. The amount of time that may 
be provided for this study need not be definitely stipulated. 
A provisional program is shown on page 269. In this it is 
seen that the time may vary from three tenths of the school 
day in the first two grades to one half the time in the upper 
grades. But the nature and outline of this subject, as dis- 
cussed in this chapter, suggest considerable variation in the 
time allowed. 

OBSERVATION IN THE LIVES OF CHILDREN 

Acquaintance with environment. The most frequent act 
of children of elementary school age is that of receiving im- 
pressions of the outside world. An almost constant stream 
of sensations is the experience of these little people. And 
in these experiences boys and girls are intensely active. 
" No reception without reaction, no impression without 

277 



278 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

correlative expression." ^ It is the nature of children to 
see, to hear, to feel what is going on about them. This 
sensing of their environment is the larger part of the daily 
life of children. It is their means of learning. And by 
this learning children are enabled to adjust themselves to 
their surroundings and to the play of events that make up 
life. But even the observing of what is about us may be 
a real act of adjustment. Children look with wonder at 
the Falls of Niagara; they stand in a great machine shop 
with attention riveted upon the unerring movements of 
great pieces of iron ; the small boy attends the circus and 
observes with eyes and mouth wide open — such observation 
is perfect adjustment. 

Further, the term " observation " is used for the purpose 
of emphasizing the notion that children act in their environ- 
ment. The reaction of children toward their environment is, 
relatively, far more significant than the environment itself. 
It is not the robin, or the wind, or the grocery store, but the 
response of the child that is of real consequence. Much of 
nature study, geography, and arithmetic is taught as a 
subject for study, rather than with reference to effecting a 
definite behavior on the part of the boys and girls. 

A means of adjustment. The real problem of education 
today is in its essentials the same as at any time : to help 
the individual live more successfully. In more recent 
years, however, this problem has been very largely discussed 
in terms of adjustment. In brief, the situation is this : 
our environment is very complex, and is becoming more 
and more so by reason of the ever increasing social and 
industrial changes. Into this " big blooming buzzing con- 
fusion " the child is born and in it he must live — if he is to 
live at all. The individual has no choice — he must adjust 
himself to these conditions, and the better the adjustment, 
1 James, W., Talks to Teachers, page 33. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 279 

the more successful his life. Indeed success is recorded 
in terms of adjustment. 

In his essay on The Meaning of Infancy, John Fiske has 
pointed out in a striking way the great difference between 
the infancy of the human child and that of the lower animals. 
Fiske thus throws much light on this problem of adjustment. 
Among the lower animals the infant comes into life with 
nearly all the powers of adjustment possessed by the adult. 
The amoeba expands in the presence of favorable environ- 
ment, and contracts in the presence of unfavorable environ- 
ment. The lower animal has a simple environment to 
which to respond and for this simple response nature makes 
provision before birth ; thus, suitable education is provided 
before life begins. With the fish and turtle there is little 
chance for progress ; they know all worth knowing for them 
at birth and behave satisfactorily in their environment. 
Higher in the scale of animals this period of infancy is a 
period of plasticity ; some learning takes place. Neverthe- 
less, these animals need learn little, for their environment 
is still simple. 

Man has a period of plasticity during about one third of 
his life. His environment is much more complicated — so 
much so, indeed, that nature cannot equip him before birth. 
The child is endowed with power to breathe, to nurse, to 
cry, to move his limbs in spasmodic ways. This is suflScient 
at the start. Fiske points out that in the evolution of 
mankind, " this steady increase of intelligence car- 
ried with it a steady prolongation of infancy. As mental 
life became more complex and various, as the things to be 
learned kept ever multiplying, less and less could be done 
before birth, more and more must be left to be done in the 
early years of life. So instead of being born with a few 
simple capacities thoroughly organized, man came at last 
to be born with the germs of many complex capacities which 



280 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

were reserved to be unfolded and enhanced or checked and 
stifled by the incidents of personal experience in each indi- 
vidual." ^ It is this period of infancy that makes man's 
progress possible. Infancy plays a great role in evolution. 
It was a long step in his development when man made use 
of the simplest of tools in adapting himself to his physical 
environment. But in the development of civilization an 
increasing demand is made for intelligence to guide in the use 
of tools. Higher intelligence is demanded to enable man 
to adjust himself to his social and spiritual environment. 
Here is where man's environment becomes conspicuously 
complicated. Fiske's meaning of infancy in terms of adjust- 
ment would call for an ever increasing period of infancy, 
because environment, physical, social, and intellectual, is 
more and more complex, making adjustment more and more 
difl^cult. 

In normal life out of school boys and girls of elementary 
school age have many complex experiences. The " big 
blooming buzzing confusion " which Professor James noted 
in the new-born child is found in the experience of most 
children in the midst of their present environment. This 
is conspicuously the case in the larger centers of social 
"■and industrial life; it is also true in most of school life.^ 
This confusion is merely the natural result of failure to 
understand the many impressions made upon the child. 
To help children clear up this confusion is the purpose of 
observation in the curriculum. This is to be accomplished 
by helping children become acquainted more directly with 
all the complexities of the environment in which they live. 
These great complications for the child are too generally not 
appreciated by the adult. It is true that even the adult 
experiences many complications in his life but, compared 

^ Fiske, John, The Meaning of Infancy, page 11. 

^ George Madden Martin describes in Emmy Lou a typical case.. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 281 

with the child, his world of environment is more simple. 
The adult has, through years of experience, so adjusted 
himself that to many sights he is blind, to many sounds 
deaf, to many other possible experiences insensible. Non- 
response to such has led to nonimpression. Then, too, 
experience has enabled the adult to comprehend the sensa- 
tions selected. This means for him an environment less 
complex. Thus the adult, from his viewpoint, too often 
fails to adequately appreciate the difficulties of the child 
and his peculiar need of help. 

OBSERVATION AND TRADITIONAL SCHOOL SUBJECTS 

The misuse of nature study. Nature study has con- 
tributed much to the enrichment of the curriculum, especially 
in the lower grades. It is, however, difficult, if not impossi- 
ble, to accurately estimate the influence this study has had in 
the elementary schools. By many it has been regarded 
as one of the fads and frills of modern education ; by many 
it has been given a place in the curriculum on a par with the 
Three R's and other studies ; but the substance of this 
nature study is found, in recent years, in subjects otherwise 
named, such as home life, seasonal life, elementary science, 
observation. It is also linked closely with geography, 
with physiology, with language, and with drawing. In 
such connections nature study serves as an introduction to 
geography, an extension of physiology, an occasion for the 
use of language, and an opportunity for drawing. By rea- 
son of the fact that nature study deals with simple realities 
in the environment of boys and girls, it has found a permanent 
place in the curriculum, whether with a title of its own or as 
a quiet force influencing the character of other studies. 

The history of nature study as such is brief .^ As one step 

^ See Bailey, L. H., The Nature-Study Idea, pages 6-13. 



282 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

in the development of a great pedagogical principle, it comes 
to us from earlier generations and points in the direction of 
marked development in coming years. Nature study is a 
development of the earlier object- teaching. It is one of the 
natural products of the influence of Pestalozzi, Rousseau, 
Froebel, and Sheldon. It is one expression of the reaction 
against empty formalism and the appeal to the realities 
of normal environment. Nature study is not a phase of 
science; it is a method of children's behavior in the midst 
of their surroundings. In so far as nature study is clearly 
identified with the normal environment of little people, 
just so far will it have a permanent place in the development 
of the idea that we must get away from the teaching of empty 
formalism and attend to acquainting children with the 
realities of their own environment. 

This nature-study movement has contributed much. 
However, misconceptions as to its place in a large educational 
movement have led to its misuse — even its abuse — in 
many schools, and there is good reason for its being regarded 
by many as one of the fads and frills of modern education. 
Only two of these misconceptions may be considered here. 

Nature study has been too generally regarded as a school 
method. By the very character of its subject matter it 
suggests the earlier object-method: the idea that children 
learn by sensing the objective in their environment. Teachers 
of arithmetic, geography, and the like have taken advantage 
of this suggestion and have objectified to a considerable 
extent their work in these subjects. So far, procedure is 
creditable, but these same teachers, when teaching language, 
composition, spelling, writing, or drawing, abuse nature 
study by using its content rather than its suggested method. 
Pupils are assigned language lessons about the flowers, 
they are asked to spell the names of trees, to write about 
phenomena in earth or sky, to make drawings of birds, to 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 283 

cipher on distribution of plant life.^ The subject matter of 
nature study is thus used as an instrument in the teaching 
of these formal subjects. This is the real abuse of nature 
study : it has not been made a " study " in the curriculum, 
coordinate with arithmetic, geography, and other common 
branches .2 It is pointed out in this chapter and elsewhere 
in this book that nature study, expanded to the subject 
observation, should be regarded as superior in value to 
arithmetic, geography, language, etc. Common practice 
has reduced nature study to serve as a mere method or 
device for teaching other subjects. 

Closely allied with this conception of the service of nature 
study is the fact that comparatively little attention is given 
to the subject. The average amount of time allowed in ten 
of the leading cities of the United States is only 3.4 per cent 
of the time devoted to the nineteen different subjects com- 
prising the curriculum for the grades. This is only one 
sixth the time devoted to reading; one seventh the time 
devoted to language, composition, writing, and spelling; 
one fifth the time allowed for arithmetic; and one half 
the time given to drawing. Reading, language, arithmetic, 
and drawing are all essentially formal studies, in themselves 
not immediately related to the real life activities of boys and 
girls. Nature study, which is intended to include the real 
environment of children of school age, is allowed less than 
one thirtieth of the time given to these formal subjects.* 
This was a small fractional part twenty years ago ; it seems 
to be even less now, or none at all. Nature study does not 
appear in the tabulation of studies in fifty representative 
cities.^ " Where we found such a record as ' Nature-study 

^ Compare Comstock, E. A., Manual of Nature-Study, pages 16-20. 
2 Compare Bailey, L. H., The Nature-Study Idea, page 18. 
2 Payne, B. R., Public Elementary School Curricula, page 39. 
* Holmes, H. W., Fourteenth Year Book of the Society for Study of 
Education. 



284 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

included under reading in Grades I, II, and III,' we gave 
the whole allotment to reading, under which it was pub- 
lished." 

This slight shown nature study is doubtless explained by 
the strong hold which the traditional curriculum has upon 
both the schools and the community. More than this, the 
possible significance of a developed nature study has not yet 
become understood or appreciated. Nature study has been 
abused because it is too superficially conceived by the rank 
and file of teachers who use it as a method, and because it 
is too indefinitely conceived by a few promoters who have 
regarded nature study as an inspiration, an ideal, a point 
of view, a source of " will to do good " and " power to create 
happiness," a " nature-sympathy." As a school subject 
nature study has made no considerable advancement. 
Nevertheless, it must be recognized as an important influence 
in the modern tendency in elementary education. Object- 
teaching and nature study are clearly reactions against empty 
formalism, and, taken in conjunction with the more recent 
demands for education of a practical sort, make more striking 
the tendency, to study the real things in our complex environ- 
ment. 

Thus it seems that the tendency in our own educational 
'practices is at present to insist that our elementary school pupils 
he helped to study directly those phases of their own environment 
that have to do with their own everyday life. Observation is 
a new subject proposed, for the purpose of suggesting the 
importance of helping pupils observe more widely in their 
own surroundings. As pointed out above, this observing 
is the first step in adjusting oneself to environment; and 
this continual adjusting is the large part of the life of little 
people. 

The failure of geography. Geography, as usually pre- 
sented in schools by both teachers and texts, is a description 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 285 

of the earth as the home of man. An unbiased but critical 
examination of this study of geography cannot but convince 
one that the emphasis has been much more upon the earth 
as such, with comparatively little attention to the " home " 
of man, his social and industrial activities. Most texts 
are encyclopedic in character of content, but unfortunately 
not so in arrangement. Most texts in geography are ar- 
ranged on the basis of place. This arrangement is not 
objectionable for classes that " go through " the book, but as 
a ready source for information or for the study of a particular 
environment the text is of little service. 

A greater weakness than that of arrangement is that of 
the content itself. This content lacks the fullness of detail 
needed to develop adequately any phase of the social- 
industrial activities that constitute important parts of the 
environment of children. On the other hand, these texts 
contain on almost every page encyclopedic information that 
seldom contributes directly to the improvement of the every- 
day life of the pupils. Unfortunately, authors and teachers 
are prone to consider the course completed only when they 
have traversed the whole earth. In some of the recent 
books a marked change is suggested. In the preface of 
one of these is the statement : "In pursuance of emphasis 
on the human side of geography, the materials and modes 
of life, industry, and trade are given more than the usual 
proportion of attention. . . . routes of transportation and 
the contribution of the whole world to the needs of a single 
community can be so studied as to give the pupil inspiring 
ideas of the unity of the world and its people." One might 
expect the change suggested, had the following statement 
in the latter part of the preface not been made : " The map is 
the central feature in geographic instruction." Almost 
unlimited map questions, such as, " Compare the longitudes 
of Cape Race and Cape St. Roque ; of Panama and Hudson 



286 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Bay ; of Panama and Cape Mendocino," indicate this central 
feature. 

Mere locality does not constitute the chief environment of 
people, nor a knowledge of this the leading means of adjust- 
ment. The behavior of peoples in their social and industrial 
relationships is the environment of most consequence to 
people. To understand and appreciate this is the significant 
means of adjustment. In his Type Studies from the Geography 
of the United States, McMurry goes far toward the under- 
standing of environment for the purpose of adjustment, but 
his type studies are too predominantly place-geography 
and contain too little description of the social-industrial 
activities of peoples. This is the failure of geography to 
meet present needs of adjustment. 

The formality of arithmetic. Arithmetic is strictly a form 
subject. Only in its " applications " does it touch real life. 
And these applications are for the purpose of supplying 
means of approach or methods of motivation in arithmetic 
as a disciplinary study. School arithmetic has not yet 
approached the study of quantitative aspects of our environ- 
ment and our real adjustments. 

Similarly, other subjects of the traditional curriculum fail 
to supply pupils with the study of environment needed for 
adjustment. 

OBSERVATION AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 

The demand for vocational training. Special training for 
the leading professions has been provided for generations. 
Schools of journalism, agriculture, commerce, and education 
are typical of later development. But in more recent times 
attention has been directed to vocational training in the 
interests of a greater variety of workers. Thus trade 
schools, technological schools, and apprenticeship schools 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 287 

have developed to meet the demand for more effectual 
preparation for the various employments. 

The demand for industrial education. The development 
of social and industrial activities has led in recent years to a 
demand for a type of education less technical than vocational 
training, and more far-reaching in its effects. This demand 
comes primarily from " the common man who must do 
common things." ^ This common man is rapidly developing 
into a man of power in a democracy. He realizes that his 
efficiency as a common man in this democratic country 
depends upon intelligence, not of the old " liberal arts," 
but of the new industrial and social life. And the cause 
of the common man has been championed by men who are 
leaders in educational, social, and industrial activity .^ 
It has become clear that the culture of the liberal arts is too 
restrictive in its nature and too limited, considering the com- 
paratively few who reach the higher stages of our educational 
scheme. An industrial education for the common man is 
needed to help him face labor troubles with better insight 
and self-control; to help him substitute intelligent interest 
for monotonous drudgery in his work; to help him find 
more leisure time and spend it better. On the side of the 
community, too, it must be said that industrial education 
for the common man is demanded. The welfare of the 
society depends upon the intelligence of the masses as well 
as the leadership of the few ; and only as the general populace 
is advanced does the community get satisfactory returns for 
the large investments in educational institutions. 

^ This significant expression comes from Robinson's chapter on "History 
for the Common Man" in his book, The New History. 

2 For representative writers of this class see : Addams, Jane, Democracy 
and Social Ethics; Davenport, E., Education for Efficiency; Dean, A. D., 
The Worker and the State; Carlton, Education and Industrial Evolution; 
Hanus, P. H., Th^ Beginnings of Industrial Education; Leake, A. H., In- 
dustrial Education; Leavitt, F. M., Examples of Industrial Education; 
Weeks, Ruth, The People's School. 



288 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Institutions for industrial education. Professional schools 
connected with higher educational institutions have led the 
way. Technological and trade schools have followed. In 
more recent years continuation schools have been planned 
to connect the general training of the grade schools and the 
apprenticeship work in industries. Vocational high schools 
and part-time cooperative schools have a similar purpose. 
Industrial schools vary greatly in character and scope. 
The latest schools to develop are the prevocational schools. 
These are usually connected with the grade schools, though 
in the main confined to the upper grades.^ 

WEAKNESS OF PRESENT PROVISIONS FOR INDUSTRIAL 
EDUCATION 

The principle of " seeping down." This practical educa- 
tion for the common people seems to be coming slowly, but 
only as it seeps down into the lowest schools from the higher. 
Under the influence of a general demand and also of the 
junior high school movement, this prevocational school work 
has reached as low as the seventh grade. In such schools 
over-age pupils who have not reached this grade — probably 
never could under the present organization — are enrolled. 
The serious defect of this policy of arranging for this work 
only as it seeps downward is that a constructive principle 
is largely wanting and the real purpose for such industrial 
education is greatly restricted. Prevocational and industrial 
schools do not reach the masses. The great majority — 
indeed all — of the people in a democratic country need an 
intelligent insight into the social-industrial activities which 
constitute this chief environment. The present principle 
of organization for industrial education fails to take this 
into account. 

^ Leavitt and Brown, Prevocational Education in the Public Schools; 
Leavitt, Examples of Industrial Education. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 289 

Present basis of selection. Three types of pupils are 
usually selected for these prevocational and industrial 
schools : ^ (1) Those who are retarded and are regarded as 
failures in the traditional school ; (2) those who are stamped 
as troublesome, slow, uninterested, inattentive, in the tra- 
ditional work ; (3) those whose circumstances indicate that 
schooling will be limited. 

This basis is remedial at best. The purpose thus seems 
to be corrective and only for those who do not profit in the 
traditional work. There is the implication, too, that this 
industrial intelligence is needed only by the traditional 
school failures. To the extent that intelligent insight 
and appreciation of the complex life in which we live are 
deemed important for all, the present basis of organization 
fails to reach those not belonging to the three classes listed 
above. 

A device of teaching. It was pointed out in Chapter Nine 
that the interests of children in their own activities and the 
affairs of community life are frequently used — misused — 
as a device for enlisting pupils' interests in the portions of the 
school work that do not appeal directly to them. Quite 
representative of this policy are the following statements: 
" The usual school subjects must be vitalized or ' motivated ' 
anew." " These boys must be led to discover that there is 
a real use for percentage." " An adequate amount of repe- 
tition of any school subject can be secured by some such 
expedient as that of drawing the child's attention to the par- 
allel between drill in school work and the infinite amount of 
practice performed in every walk of life in the real world." 
" In organizing prevocational classes, therefore, the plan 
commonly employed is to make the shopwork central and 
paramount, not, perhaps, because it really is of greater 

^ See Leavitt and Brown, Prevocational Education in the Public Schools, 
pages 36 seq. 



290 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

value, but because it appeals to the boys as being so." * 
If the study of real life must be used as a device for studying 
schoolroom subjects, there is danger that industrial education 
will never make great progress. 

Vocational training and industrial intelligence. It is to be 
feared that insufficient distinction is made between a training 
for a definite vocation and a study of social and industrial 
conditions. One is for the particular worker, the other is 
for all citizens. On the basis of this distinction all pupils 
n school should be given acquaintance with a great variety 
of human activities ; vocational training should be selected 
by individuals according to interests and needs. 

THE NEED OF INDUSTRIAL INTELLIGENCE 

Vocational guidance. The importance of vocational 
education has led to the problem of vocational guidance. 
The effectiveness of such guidance must depend largely upon 
the pupils' acquaintance with a wide range of possibilities 
in selection of vocations. Trained in the eight years' course 
of formal subjects in the grades, the pupil entering a voca- 
tional high school, continuation school, or trade school 
will frequently be troubled in making his selection. He 
has too little industrial insight.^ 

Industrial intelligence and citizenship. In addition to 
the need of industrial intelligence for the individual in select- 
ing a vocation, the community demands this more and more 
of its citizens. General intelligence about the affairs of life 
is a great asset for citizenship. 

The service of observation. Observation as a school 
subject is here planned as one important factor in natural 

^ Leavitt and Brown, Prevocational Education in Public Schools, pages 
72, 73, 75, 76. 

^ Dr. Kerschensteiner, once Director of Education in Munich, recognized 
this as a weakness in the relation of the grade schools and the continuation 
schools. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 291 

development.^ In his discussion of Rousseau's idea of 
natural education, Dewey says, " In short, if education is 
the proper growth of tendencies and powers, attention to the 
process of growing in the particular form in which it goes on 
from day to day is the only way of making secure the accom- 
plishments of adult life." 2 Observation is a school study 
of this type. It is proposed in this subject to help pupils 
study directly the environment in which they live, and thus 
help them to adjustment by a continual readjustment. 

OBSERVATION ARRANGED FOR SCHOOL WORK 

Program must be flexible. The program here suggested 
and more fully outlined in Chapter Seventeen is that used at 
the University Elementary School. It admits of much varia- 
tion to suit local and personal conditions. The principle of 
organization discussed in Chapter Eleven governs the work 
outlined. The work is designated for certain grades, but this 
division is unimportant. It must be insisted that the topic 
studied must be adapted to the individual, not the reverse. 

Observation for Grades I and II. In these two grades the 
work has been organized under four divisions : 1, Plant life. 
2, Animal life. 3, Earth and sky. 4, People. This classi- 
fication is, perhaps, extremely arbitrary. In early stages 
children make no classifications, naturally ; yet this grouping 
of phenomena seems to be understood and appreciated by 
pupils of these grades. And these four groups include the 
various phenomena affecting the behavior of children and 
interesting them. 

As these groups include all that may be of concern to older 
pupils also, the question at once arises: What will define 
the nature and limit the scope of work for these two grades ? 

^ In his Schools of Tomorrow, Dewey describes the University Elementary 
School under the title, "Four Factors in Natural Growth." 
* Dewey, J., Schools of Tomorrow, page 6. 



292 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Indefiniteness will be judged by the traditional teacher as 
the weakness of this program. But this very indefiniteness 
provides real opportunity for the teacher who would be 
constructive and not mechanical in her work. From this 
viewpoint, indefiniteness adds strength to the program. 
The interests and abilities of the pupils, both collectively 
and individually, must govern largely. However, one 
principle may have much influence; namely, little people 
are essentially self -centered. Their interests are in those 
phases of environment that very directly affect themselves. 
Children are interested in flowers chiefly because their color 
or fragrance affords pleasure. 

I was rich in flowers and trees. 
Humming birds and honey bees ; 
For my sport the squirrel played. 
Plied the snouted mole his spade. 
For my taste the blackberry cone 
Purpled over hedge and stone ; 
Laughed the brook for my delight. 
Through the day and through the night. 

Whittier's barefoot boy was self-centered in his observations 
of nature. His environment was his own. The particular 
topics, some of which are listed in the outlines in Chapter 
Seventeen, have been chosen with such a self-centered interest 
in control. The particular birds, flowers, phenomena in 
earth and sky, and behaviors of people will vary in different 
localities. But so many of these are nearly universal that 
they are suitable in most schools. Children are interested 
in people in so far as people contribute directly to the com- 
fort or the pleasure of children. 

The substance of the first three divisions of observation 
for these two grades is somewhat related to nature study 
and elementary science in the traditional school. In scope 
and method of treatment, however, the two are quite dif- 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 293 

ferent. The fourth division, people, has Httle relation to the 
traditional school except as it supplies topics for morning 
talks and moral instruction. Within this group such in- 
dividual topics as, " How people help one another," " How 
people keep neat and tidy," " How people keep warm in 
winter," " How people go about," become real problems for 
study, lasting several days, with one and a half hours' 
attention each day. Here is a phase of children's environ- 
ment where adjustment is very important. 

Local industries for Grades III and IV. Increase in 
experience leads little people to find interests in the activities 
of others, where such activities do not so directly afiFect 
them. As Whittier's barefoot boy adds : 

Still, as my horizon grew. 
Larger grew my riches too. 

These interests in the activities of others are still somewhat 
centered in self, as these children early learn how their own 
welfare is dependent upon others. Boys and girls, especially 
those from about eight to ten years of age, are keen observers 
as they go into town and about the community. They are 
inquisitive and show an active interest in the activities of 
community life. 

And children coming home from school 

Look in at the open door ; 
They love to see the flaming forge. 

And hear the bellows roar, 
And catch the burning sparks that fly 

Like chaff from the threshing-floor. 

After the blacksmith shop, they pass the print shop and 
through the large windows look intently at the printing 
press. They eagerly wish for the chance to get in behind the 
moving wheels and levers to see how it all goes on. The 
fire department, the post oflSce, the meat market, the grocery 



294 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

store — these and many other such places are of great interest 
to these young people, and they constitute a great part of 
the environment to which adjustment should be made.^ 

This subject, called local industries, arranged for third 
and fourth grades, must necessarily be local. That is, the 
topics must vary according to the locality. Yet in most 
communities there is much that is common : the post office, 
fire department, grocery store, etc. In some towns a flour 
mill may be found, but no dairy ; in another a dairy, but no 
mill ; but an industry not found in a given place is not a part 
of the immediate environment and therefore not that to 
which adjustment need be made at once, by pupils as imma- 
ture as those in Grades III and IV. In large cities these 
industrial activities are much more numerous and more 
complicated than third- and fourth-grade pupils can under- 
stand and appreciate ; in country and rural places the limita- 
tions call for more intensive study of fewer topics. In all 
cases, selection must be made and emphasis given according 
to adjustments needed. 

Social-industrial activities for Grades V and VI, or even 
V to VIII. Real environment is not limited to space; or 
at least, spatial environment varies with experience and 
interests. As children develop their interests widen. En- 
vironment no longer connotes only the surrounding locality. 
The whole world, and all the forces and phenomena of 
nature which affect the lives of children rather directly must 
be included in the term " environment." Children of about 
ten years of age, on the basis of a fair amount of experience, 
become interested in affairs throughout the world. They 
begin to understand how dependent they are on the industries, 
means of transportation, methods of manufacture, processes 
in production, various occupations, manner of life, forms of 
government, and governmental activities in other countries. 
^ Other topics are outlined in Chapter Seventeen. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 295 

These ar6 phases of a larger environment to which adjust- 
ments must be made by all intelligent and efficient citizens. 
These social-industrial ^ activities become, therefore, the 
topics for study in the upper grades. These activities belong 
to the subject observation, though the means and methods 
of carrying on this observing are different from those used 
in the first grades, where pupils observe directly rather than 
indirectly through books. 

Observation in Grades V to VIII of industrial, social, and 
political events is merely a means by which the pupils become 
acquainted with important phases of their environment. 
The doings of peoples constitute the largest part of the 
environment of peoples, young or old. In the outlines for 
Grades I and II observation included plant and animal life, 
and earth and sky. These divisions are not definitely pro- 
vided for as such in these upper grades. The emphasis is 
upon observing people and their activities. But pupils do 
not study transportation long before they are led to study 
land and water formations, for mountains, valleys, lakes* 
rivers, etc., are large factors in the problem of transporta- 
tion. Nor will the phenomena of the sky be neglected. 
Winds and rains affect transportation. Sun, moon, and 
stars make their own contributions to navigation. In 
mining, in lumbering, in manufacturing, in farming, etc., 
plant and animal life, also earth and sky phenomena, become 
subordinate topics for study. Environment is of first 
importance in human activities, other phenomena are 
secondary. 

The extent to which the junior high school movement has 
developed makes it questionable if provision should be made 
here for Grades VII and VIII. Thus far the junior high 
school is little more than a name for a slight change in 
organization. The content of work has been modified but 
^ This term is used rather loosely for want of a term that is more definite. 



296 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

little. One part of the theory of the Junior high scihool calls 
for subject matter similar to that presented here ; namely, 
that which appeals more directly to the practical interests 
of pupils of this stage of advancement. Organization of 
the junior high school or that of the traditional seventh and 
eighth grades is quite secondary to the curriculum for these 
grades. The study of these social-industrial activities is 
appropriate for either the two upper grades of the elementary 
school or the first two years of the junior high school. How- 
ever, the outline of work for these two years is, at the appear- 
ance of this volume, not yet worked out to any satisfactory 
extent. This work is developing as a study of vocations with 
special reference to helping boys and girls in choosing their 
life work. Industrial intelligence of a more general nature 
and scope is the leading aim in Grades V and VI. In 
Grades VII and VIII the aim is to lead pupils to try their 
likes and prove their tastes. 

METHOD OF STUDY 

Method must not be definite. In teaching the formal 
traditional subjects the method may be formal and pre- 
scribed. In these studies of industrial activities, " circum- 
stances alter cases " to such an extent that method must be 
too variable to be prescribed. Further, method may be 
quite formal where formal teaching is emphasized. In 
the work here proposed cooperative study by teacher and 
pupils is characteristic. Method cannot play so prominent 
a part, but must be shifting according to circumstances. 
Even the topics in any grade need not be taken up in a 
definite order. The teacher, the pupils, or various cir- 
cumstances must be the determining factor. This is likely 
to be disconcerting to the particularizing superintendent 
or supervisor, but it should be liberalizing to teacher and 
pupil. The latter is more important. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 297 

Two general problems of method are sufficient for the 
discussion here. We are first concerned with getting in- 
formation. As noted above, becoming acquainted with 
environment is the chief step in adjustment. But passive 
impression without active expression means little. There- 
fore, some attention must be given to the forms and extent of 
expression as means of furthering the pupil's development. 

Sources of information. Direct observation is probably 
the most effective manner of acquiring information. " Per- 
sonal experience," " back to nature," " from the concrete 
to the abstract," " the objective method," " nature study " 
— these pedagogical notions have one common basis : 
direct experience. Most of the traditional curriculum does 
not admit of this. It is too abstract, not itself objective. 
The content of this study in observation invites teachers and 
pupils to study outside the schoolroom to a great extent. 
The excursion is the most feasible and effective means. 

Space does not permit a presentation of the details of 
conducting efficiently excursions in the study of these topics. 
The discussion needed may be only outlined. 

1. An excursion should be preceded by schoolroom con- 
ference. The observer sees most who anticipates something 
of what he is to observe. It is here that a little of that 
much-used and much-abused principle of apperception is 
used. In this conference the teacher and the pupils may 
discover points on which they disagree ; they may discover 
their own lack of information and the indefiniteness of their 
knowledge. Questions of genuine interest will be raised, 
but there are two serious dangers that should be avoided : 
one is that the teacher will conduct this conference as a 
" recitation " to test the pupils' knowledge ; the other is 
that the teacher will impose upon the pupils an organization 
of the material to be observed. It is important that the 
conference be informal and that no semblance of organization 



298 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

be made until pupils have collected enough information to be 
organized. 

2. While upon an excursion, e.g., to the flour mill, post 
office, or railway station, systematic order in observing should 
be avoided. When observing, impressions are wanted. 
The order of arrangement or the process of an industry may 
be constructed later. This calls for more thought and study, 
and ample time must be provided. Let the pupils observe 
closely, but seldom take notes. What the pupils do not 
remember individually or jointly is not worth " scribbling " 
down in notebooks. Credit must be given the business man 
or employee for being able to teach the pupils and teacher 
something of his own work. It ought not to be necessary 
to insist that such excursions warrant school time and that 
they ought not to be treated as so subordinate as to be 
indulged in only when the school is not in session. The ex- 
cursion properly conducted means school extension. Such 
school excursions should lead individual pupils to make 
further observations and inquiries. 

3. The excursion must be supplemented by classroom 
study : reading and discussion. These serve also as two 
other sources of information. 

Textbooks alone are insufficient for supplementing excur- 
sions. The geography approaches the need more satisfacto- 
rily than other textbooks, but it is very far from supplying 
sufficient information. A library is indispensable. It can 
be clearly shown that the traditional school pupil is famishing 
for want of book information. In place of forty copies of the 
text, the forty pupils should have forty different books, 
which means nearly forty times the information usually 
supplied.^ Abundant reading should be provided but not 
assigned for recitation, and must be regarded as supplemen- 

^ The reader is referred to Appendix B for a list of books used by Grades 
I and II and reference materials in certain other topics studied. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 299 

tary to the excursion or previous observations. Some pupils 
must be allowed and expected to read more, some less, 
precisely as some see more, some less on an excursion. These 
reading periods will necessarily vary in order and in length 
of time. As a rule, longer periods are needed for study on 
such assignments than the traditional school schedule allows. 

Excursions and individual readings encourage pupils to 
talk. The conference should be arranged at irregular times : 
usually each day, but not necessarily so, and on some days 
there may be more than one conference. Govern reading 
by recitation requirements and pupils lose interest in the 
topic studied. Let the conference be held when there is 
evidence to teacher and pupils that the class has something 
to talk about; then both reading and conference are moti- 
vated in a normal way. This class conference contributes 
much information to the individual members, as each con- 
tributes from his own readings and the findings of all are 
pooled for the general good. This class conference has a 
further eiffect of so developing the habit of inquiry and 
research in the pupils that conferences with people outside of 
school are quite common. 

Development through expression. The conference has 
already been referred to as a source of information. It also 
serves as a most natural and excellent form of expression. 
Written reports are likely to be required to too great an 
extent. Some reports as records of work are quite in place. 
These records of observation and study should be prepared 
only as pupils can, in the main, be led to feel that such 
records contribute to their understanding of the topic. 
These reports, especially in intermediate and upper grades, 
should be strikingly individualistic; they should be more 
than mere compositions in English ; they should include such 
drawings, clippings of pictures, arithmetical calculations, 
maps, and other forms of illustration as may make expression 



300 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

more clear. Moreover, these records should be inclusive of 
rather large topics and bound in booklets suitably covered. 

Relation to the Three R's. The traditional school teacher 
is here again warned that these studies are not to be used 
as an omnibus for the " common branches." Attention 
should be directed to the topic of observation without 
reference to the Three R's. On the other hand, an effective 
study of a topic — or of several topics — will require 
considerable amount of Three R material. However, the 
Three R's will not be presented according to the traditional 
school system. Such is the case in real life. In the con- 
ferences suggested above, " language " is studied under the 
best of conditions ; " silent reading " is provided in large 
quantities in the library work; " oral reading " is frequent 
in the conferences by way of supplying information, and that 
under the strongest motive for good reading, viz., supplying 
to others what may be of profit to them ; " drawing " is 
called for as a short but effective means of describing; 
" arithmetic " is used wherever quantitative problems are 
relevant to the topic studied and in such cases it is strictly 
the "practical" arithmetic now so much advocated; "geog- 
raphy " as a study of people living and working upon the 
earth is inherent in most of these observation topics ; " writ- 
ing " is called for in all the written reports and records. 
Indeed it may be concluded here as elsewhere ^ that the best 
way to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and all the other 
formal and incidental school subjects is not to teach them as 
such, but to use their content in the most effective way 
possible in the study of phases of real life. 

RESULTS 

Sympathetic intelligence. What results may be expected 
in such a study of various phenomena in the environment of 
^ See Chapter Eighteen. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 301 

children of elementary school age must be somewhat indefi- 
nite at best. It is a sympathetic intelligence in regard 
to the commonplace affairs of everyday life. Pupils who 
have had seven or eight years of this observation are quite 
well informed. Information contributes much toward 
appreciation and sympathetic attitude. Just this is greatly 
needed for the welfare of any community. The indefi- 
niteness of this result is liable to disconcert many school 
teachers and school administrators, but life outside of 
school is no more definite, and we are not yet prepared to 
insist upon definiteness by means of some scientific standard 
or measure. 

The mere habit of observing is conspicuous for its absence 
among most people, both the younger and the older. Whit- 
tier presented his Barefoot Boy as a good observer — limited 
in this case to certain types of nature environment. While 
such habits of observing are natural, the habit of wide obser- 
vation is not suflSciently prevalent. Sympathetic intelli- 
gence, so essential to full participation in community life, 
is dependent upon the habit of observing widely in social 
and natural environment. The school study, observation, 
presented in this chapter and partially illustrated by 
outlines in Chapter Seventeen, is planned to help boys 
and girls develop that habit so much needed in community 
life. 

Three-R intelligence. We are accustomed to look for 
school products in terms of Three-R information and skill. 
In the previous section it was pointed out that these common 
branches would be more effectively studied if treated as inci- 
dental to the study of problems in real life. Some scientific 
evidence of this is given in Chapter Nineteen. It is here 
insisted that a knowledge of arithmetic is futile except as 
it functions in real situations. This is equally true with 
regard to other school subjects. Observation is presented 



302 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

in this chapter as a study where the traditional subjects 
do play this part, but always a subordinate part. 

Serious dangers. Two serious dangers are apparent. 
One is that the teacher will use these observation studies 
as mere means of motivating school work in the common 
branches. To that extent, the study of environment will 
be subordinated and adjustment seriously affected. The 
other danger is that in her eagerness to free herself from the 
traditional Three R's the teacher may slight important aspects 
of these instruments of real life. Quantitative aspects of 
mining, manufacturing, and transportation will be given 
too little attention; expression in good English form, oral 
or written, may be neglected. To avoid these dangers it is 
necessary to give to each topic studied the fullest possible 
treatment consistent with the place of that topic in real life, 
subject always to the limitations in the materials for study 
and the abilities of the pupils. 

Supplementary Readings 

Addams, Jane. Democracy and Social Ethics, pages 137-220. 

Bailey, L. H. The Nature-Study Idea. 

Carney, Mabel. Country Life and the Country School, pages 302-327. 

Cole, P. R. Industrial Education in Elementary Schools. 

Davenport, E. Education for Efficiency, pages 11-36, 60-77. 

Hanus, p. H. Beginnings of Industrial Education, pages 1-98. 

Kerschensteiner, G. The Idea of the Industrial School. 

Leake, A. H. Industrial Education, pages 43-58, 163-172. 

Leavitt, F. M. Examples of Industrial Education, pages 1-51. 

Leavitt, F. M., and Brown, Edith. Prevocational Education in the Public 

Schools. 
Puffer, J. A. Vocational Education, pages 24-56, 128-144. 
Report : The Place of Industries in Public Education. National Education 

Association, 1910, pages 680-710. 
Robinson, J. H. The New History, pages 132-153. 
Russell, J. E. "The School and Industrial Life." Educational Review, 

Vol. 38, pages 433-450. 
Weeks, Ruth. The People's School, pages 38-56. 



, SCHOOL STUDIES — OBSERVATION 303 

General References 

Bloomfield, M. The Vocational Guidance of Youth. 

Book, W. F. First Annual Report on Vocational Education in Indiana, 
1914. 

Davis, J. B. Vocational and Moral Guidance. 

Dopp, Katherine. The Place of Industries in Elementary Education. 

Draper, A. S. Trade Schools. 

Dunn, A. W. The Social Studies in Secondary Education. Bureau of 
Education, Bulletin No. 28, 1916. 

Hodge, C. F. Nature-Study and Life. 

Lapp, J. A., and Mote, C. H. Learning to Earn. 

Parsons, F. Choosing a Vocation. 

Snedden, D. The Problem of Vocational Education. 

Survey : Facts about the Public Schools of New Orleans in Relation to Voca- 
tion, 1914. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Fourteen 

Play is proposed as one of four subjects in the elementary school 
curriculum. 

Play as a normal activity of children becomes a school subject. 
Play is not mere recreation. 
Work is work and play is play. 
Traditional objections to play are futile. 
"Education through play" is a misconception. 

Play has been justified as a means of inducing children to work. 
Thus play is used as a method of teaching. 
Play of children is abused by subordinating it to the formal 
school arts. 
Play through education is a more valuable concept. 

Play is properly justified as one of the normal and wholesome 

activities of children. 
Children need instruction to improve their play. 

The Three R's may be of service. 
Play may thus be a normal motive for that school work which 
tends to improve the play. 
Games may be easily scheduled. 

There is danger in stressing periods in play life. 
Play is instinctive, but children should be taught the games 
to be played. 
There are play-activities other than games. 
Play must be conducted for its chief value ; i.e., fun. By-products 

of play must be strictly incidental. 
Theories of play are more academic than useful. 

Play as release of surplus energy is biologically unsound. 

Play as nature's method of education is an injustice to children's 

mode of living. 
Play as race recapitulation has no educational significance. 
Play is simply one phase of the normal life of children. 



304 



CHAPTER FOURTEEN 

School Studies — Play 

PLAY IN THE CURRICULUM 

Play as a study. Play is presented in this chapter as 
one of four studies outlined in this volume as a curriculum 
for the elementary school. The other three studies are: 
observation, stories, and handwork. Play is given a place 
coordinate with the others, though the amount of time 
proposed for it is not so great as for the others. Were the 
Three R's of the traditional curriculum to remain unchanged, 
the addition of this study, play, might be quite out of place. 
Play is not of the same character as reading, writing, arith- 
metic, and language. It could not be arranged as a study 
coordinate with them. Play merits a place in the curriculum 
strictly upon the principle presented in Chapter Nine : The 
curriculum should be selected directly from real life and be 
expressed in terms of the activities of people. The function 
of the school should be to help boys and girls do better in 
all their activities that are normal and wholesome. Play 
is one of the normal and wholesome activities of children. 
It cannot be assumed that children play well enough. It 
must be admitted that there is room for improvement in 
play and that this improvement is one of the demands made 
by society. It must not be overlooked that the spirit of 
play and the means and manner of playing are two very 
distinct things. By nature children are inclined to play. 
Play is instinctive. Children do not need to be taught to 
play, though many do seem to be quite lacking in this in- 
stinctive tendency to play which is so much a part of 
the lives of the young and which contributes so much 
incidentally to their development. But there is great 
need that the means and manner of playing be improved. 

305 



306 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Such a need gives opportunity and responsibility to the 
school. 

This problem will appeal to parents and communities to 
just the extent that play is recognized as an important 
phase of everyday life. If one looks upon play as super- 
fluous, there can be no grounds for its admission to the 
curriculum. 

Play and recreation. Play is not mere recreation. It 
is a phase of life coordinate with work. Recess at school 
is for the purpose of recreation. It is quite erroneously 
regarded as the only time for play. Play is thus made a 
means of recuperating from the strain of work or of prepar- 
ing for serious tasks. A period for recess is almost uni- 
versally provided in school schedules. This is usually for 
ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes about the middle of the 
forenoon or afternoon session. Its purpose is relief from 
the strain of schoolroom occupation. Thus recreation at 
the recess period is only an instrument in providing a con- 
tinuance of energy in the prosecution of work. Outside of 
school the clerk or business man takes a vacation of two 
weeks for recreation in view of return to work with renewed 
strength. Provision for recreation is virtually a recognition 
that work has been carried on beyond the endurance of the 
worker. As recreation, play has no claim for a place in the 
curriculum. There is a greater need that, through the 
curriculum, a study be made of the improvement of work so 
that human energy will not be overtaxed and recreation 
demanded. 

But play is a phase of life which is coordinate with work. 
Play has always been a conspicuous part in human life. 
The Olympian games of the Greeks, the gladiatorial combats 
of the Romans, the folk dances of the peasantry of Europe, 
the war dances of the American Indians — these were play 
activities and not mere recreation as a relief from work. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 307 

Even in adult life not all of one's energy and time should be 
required for work. To a much greater extent play should 
be a part of the life of children. To help children live 
better is the justification for the study of play in the school 
curriculum. On this ground, play merits a place coordinate 
with any study that refers to the activities of normal life. 

The spirit of play. School children should be taught to 
play games for the sake of having the most wholesome fun 
possible. This does not mean that children should be taught 
to keep in mind fun as their object. Hawthorne has some- 
where said, " Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes 
incidentally. Make it an object of pursuit, and it leads 
us a wild goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some 
other object, and very possibly we may find that we have 
caught happiness without dreaming of it ; but likely enough 
it is gone the moment we say to ourselves, ' Here it is ! ' " 
The richest fun is experienced when children simply lose 
themselves in the vigor of their activity. Something of 
this play spirit is the adult's when he is at some work in 
which he is genuinely interested. But the spirit of play is 
very different from genuine pleasure experienced in agree- 
able work. " The work of cutting down the big weeds gets 
on slowly, although it is not very disagreeable, or would not 
be if it were play. John imagines that yonder big thistle 
is some whiskered vUlain, of whom he has read in a fairy 
book, and he advances on him with * Die, ruffian ! ' and 
slashes off his head with the billhook; or he charges upon 
the rows of mullein stalks as if they were rebels in regimental 
ranks, and hews them down without mercy. What fun it 
might be if there were only another boy there to help." ^ 
This work was too serious for the spirit of play which John 
had, and a companion was needed to make possible the fun 
which John craved. There is serious danger of failure if 
1 Warner, C. D., Being a Boy, pages 17-19. 



308 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

effort is made to conduct work in the spirit of play and no 
less danger of abusing play if an attempt is made to use it 
as an instrument in work. The dinner bell rang before 
John had finished with the weeds and the one who wanted 
fun in play was disappointed because he was unable to forget 
himself and his duty toward the weeds. One who works 
most successfully keeps in mind the purpose for which he 
labors. One who really plays becomes wholly unconscious 
of fun as his purpose in play. Indeed he is so completely 
engrossed in the play activity that he even forgets himself. 
Here is a fundamental difference between work and play. 
It is essentially a difference in the consciousness of purpose 
for which the work or the play activity is carried on.^ 

Closely connected with this distinction between work and 
play is the more usual one. The compensation for work 
appears only after the work is finished. Play is its own 
reward. The professional ball player becomes really a 
professional ball " worker." Play has become work by 
reason of postponement of reward. Work may become 
play only when the later reward is wholly disregarded and 
when that reward becomes pure joy in the work itself. 

Work is still work and play is play. Each is a phase of 
life. The improvement of each is the function of education. 
On such a basis play cannot be denied its place in the cur- 
riculum. 

Traditional objections. In spite of the fact that some 
educational leaders during several centuries have recog- 
nized the value of play in the lives of children, educational 
practice has almost forbidden play in the curriculum and 
even in the schoolroom. Traditional practice is opposed to 
this progressive theory. Play is recognized as an instinct 
in children. All are disposed to play. But in the usual 
school the exhibition of play divides the pupils into two 
1 Compare Groos, K., The Play of Man, page 387. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 309 

classes: the good and the " bad." The good pupil is the 
one whose instinct to play is held under control ; the bad 
pupil is the one in whom this spirit of play is beyond control. 
The instinct to play is recognized as natural. But tradition 
believes in holding in abeyance this instinct. The tradi- 
tionalist is also wont to look upon play as strictly puerile. 
It is opposed to effective work. " Life is real, life is earnest." 
The school is life ; therefore, school must be real and earnest. 
Play is puerile ; work is manly.^ The service of elementary 
education is to discipline children away from play and to 
train them into work. " When I became a man I put away 
childish things " ; children should be trained to put away 
this childish play as early as possible. Further, tradition 
quite generally looks upon play as a means of fondling chil- 
dren where rigorous discipline is much more needed. Play 
is thus regarded as an instrument in the hands of those who 
have only tender sympathy instead of wholesome strength 
in the management of children. " So with coddling and 
dawdling and marking time, and playing at work and 
* working ' the ' dear teacher,' he [the pupil] emerges, not 
merely inert of mind and morals, but pervert." ^ 

But such objections need not be taken too seriously, 
though there are some grounds for the sharp criticism. 
The " bad " boy is not so bad after all. He is mischievous, 
but only because he will have a little rightful pleasure, even 
at the slight discomfiture of another. The child is intent 
on fun, not mischief. This mischievous act may be judged 
by the adult as wrong. To the boy it is only one of many 
steps in his growth.^ The so-called " bad " boy is too 
generally judged by standards properly suited to quite other 

^ Compare one of the regulations of a college about 1785, "The pupils in 
this school shall engage in nothing that the world calls play ; for those who 
play when they are young will play when they are old." 

2 Gayley, C. M., Idols, pages 114-115. 

' Compare Judd, C. H., Genetic Psychology for Teachers, page 116. 



310 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

stages in his development. Play is not incompatible with 
work. Indeed these are two phases of one life. Moreover, 
while some play is of the coddling type, the best and truest 
play is not without the discipline that makes for wholesome 
development. Tradition has been opposed to play in educa- 
tion, and with some reason. However, play may be so 
wisely conducted as to merit the highest regard of adults 
and yet afford the best of fun for the children. 

" EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY " — A MISCONCEPTION 

Assigned justification for play. Play seems to have been 
discovered by some as a good means of inducing pupils to 
work. This service is then assigned as its justification. 
Children seem to have a passion for play. Adults believe 
in the necessity for work. They also too generally regard 
children as indisposed to work. But if this disposition to 
play can be used to propel children to work, what a gain 
there is ! If play can be really used, it may merit a place in 
the school. To take this position is to rank play as an 
activity of children subordinate in value to work. Only 
on the basis of its use in the furtherance of work activities 
is it to be justified. 

This relation of play to work seems to be in the minds 
of those who are the strongest advocates of more play for 
children. " Since the Berlin Play Congress in 1894 the 
sentiment has grown that these (games) are of national 
importance and are preferable to gymnastics both for soul 
and body. Hence we have play-schools, teachers, yards, 
and courses, both for their own value and also to turn on 
the play impulse to aid in the drudgery of school work." ^ 
" The use of play in the schools of today " is the topic 
discussed by one of these play leaders. " But a far more 



1 Hall, G. S., Youth, page 113. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 311 

serious and important problem confronts us when we en- 
deavor to make systematic use of real play in education. . . . 
The effect of the use of play on school work in general is 
worthy of mention. . . . Teachers who had regularly made 
use of games in the afternoon session were unanimous in 
saying that the games revived the children, gave an added 
zest to their study, and made them more quiet and respon- 
sive. . . . Very much of the school work in nature study 
may be accomplished through play. . . . Nothing could 
be simpler than to utilize these play interests in gaining a 
knowledge of the fauna and flora of a given locality." ^ 
Education through Play ^ is the title of a very substantial 
volume on this service of play to education. In his chapter 
on " Play," Dewey advocates this use of play : " Schools 
all over the country are at present making use of the child's 
instinct for play, by using organized games, toy making, 
or other construction based on play motives as part of the 
regular curriculum. . . . The educational value of this 
play is obvious. It teaches the children about the world 
they live in." * These four prominent writers on play and 
education thus express the prevailing theory and practice 
of play in relation to education. Whatever be the tradi- 
tional or contemporary objections to play as an activity in 
the lives of little people, play is thus justified to the extent 
that it is of use in promoting work. 

Play as a means of instruction. Service as a justification 
for play is a clear declaration that play is an instrument 
to be used in teaching. Long ago Rabelais proposed teach- 
ing elementary mathematics through play. Locke advised 
playing dice as a means of teaching the vowels and con- 
sonants. Basedow taught Latin in playing soldiers. This 
use of play is quite in vogue today. Children are readily 

1 Johnson, G. E., Education by Plays and Games, pages 40, 44. 

2 Curtis, H. S. 5 Dewey, J., Schools of Tomorrow, pages 107, 108. 



312 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

observed as having strong inclinations to play. This in- 
stinctive activity is promptly seized upon as a most ex- 
cellent instrument in teaching, especially in teaching a 
subject difficult or distasteful to children. 

From the work of one of our prominent writers on play ^ 
a few typical illustrations may be taken. 

One game is called " Arithmetical Races." " Choose 
sides. When all are ready disclose examples which have 
been concealed from sight. The side that has the larger 
number of correct answers within a given time wins." 

In geography one of the games is described: " Sides are 
chosen. The leader of one side begins by calling out the 
name of some city beginning with A. Before ten can be 
counted the leader on the other side must name another city 
beginning with A. The second player on the first side then 
takes up the game, and so on. Whoever misses is put out 
of the game. The side having most players left at the end 
of the game wins." 

In history a certain game is called " Famous Numbers." 
" Numbers are written upon cards or slips of paper. These 
are drawn and the players tell for what the number is famous. 
For example, 13 may be said to be famous because of the 
thirteen American Colonies." 

In language the game of " Adverbs " is suggested. " An 
adverb is chosen, unknown to one of the players. This 
player must question the others on a certain subject and 
infer the adverb chosen from the manner in which his ques- 
tions are answered." 

This use of play seems to place this instinctive activity 
in the same category with artificial incentives and devices, 
so generally found in the traditional school. These incen- 
tives have long been used and are still quite in evidence. 
A quarter of a century ago these incentives were classified 
^ Johnson, G. E., Education by Plays and Games, pages 193-203. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 313 

as : " Prizes, as medals, books, class honors, merit tickets, 
etc. ; privileges, as holidays, early dismissals from school, 
* honor seats,' positions as monitors, etc. ; immunities, as 
exemptions from tasks, class exercises, etc." ^ 

Such " incentives " are essentially mere means of inducing 
pupils to " lay hold " of their tasks. Such means are 
justified on the principle that " all is well that ends well." 
The Three-R subject matter is the end to be accomplished. 
These incentives, now including play to a much greater 
extent than in earlier years, are ascribed real values on the 
basis of their service. 

Abuse of " education through play." In spite of the results 
that seem to be gained through this use of play, it must be 
maintained that this beautiful instinctive activity is wrongly 
used, even to its abuse. The chief abuse is in the assign- 
ment of wrong relative values. True, there is no universally 
accepted rating of values among the various studies and 
other activities of both the child and the adult population. 
But probably most people will accept the very general 
principle that those activities are the more valuable that 
contribute the more constantly and effectively to the normal 
everyday lives of people. Play is more and more regarded 
as one of the normal phases of child life — to say nothing 
of its role in adult life. To the extent, then, that playing 
games is used as a means of teaching adverbs, or names of 
cities with the initial letter A, to that extent the more valu- 
able is made to serve the less valuable. At the risk of 
using a crude illustration, this abuse of play may be likened 
to the use the beggar made of a good coat — to patch a 
poor one, on the ground that the latter needed it the more. 
If the essentially normal activities of children are to be 
used as instruments in teaching the formal school subjects, 
such activities as breathing and eating may be used to teach 
^ White, E. E., School Management, page 132. 



314 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

number combinations. Two country boys visit the chicken 
house and vie with each other in eating raw eggs from the 
shell; the one who swallowed fourteen eggs devoured one 
and one sixth as many as the other; how many did the 
other consume? This actual case might be repeated in 
modified form as an exercise in teaching various numerical 
combinations. This practice would be a gross abuse of the 
normal activity of eating. But one need not observe ex- 
tensively in schools to note how play is abused in being 
humiliated to a plane far below the number combinations 
which it is made to serve. Relative values are overlooked. 

But of more significance, from the viewpoint of the boy 
and girl who really appreciate play, is the misuse or even 
abuse of the child's motive. The child's motive in play is 
distinctively genuine. That is, he is instinctively inclined 
to enter heartily into play activities. Naturally the child's 
object is simple, wholesome pleasure, though this is not thus 
formulated in his consciousness. In the hands of the 
teacher who uses play as an instrument the real object is 
the securing of certain Three-R subject matter. The pupil 
is not to know, until later, what the teacher is accomplishing. 
Quintilian favored making instruction an amusement to 
children, so he used ivory figures of letters to play with. 
Locke said : " The chief art is to make all that they have 
to do s'port and play." With these earlier teachers, as with 
many today, the motive of the teacher is quite other than 
the motive of the pupil. The child is fooled into doing some- 
thing he would not intentionally do. Or, in other words, he 
is paid to do what without that compensation in play he 
would be indisposed to do. But children are too shrewd 
to be long deceived and too businesslike to be long satisfied 
with a feigned compensation. 

Further, play is misused by its treatment as an omnibus 
in which to carry all the hard work, all the many difficulties. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 315 

and all the distasteful experiences of school life. Play is 
in itself highly motivated, consistently vitalized. How 
natural it is that the careworn teacher should use it to the 
fullest extent possible ! This highly motivated play leads 
the teacher to attempt to make all work play. This play- 
method of teaching becomes a fad. Here is good ground 
for the scathing criticism that the modern school pupil 
does not learn the seriousness of work and the real cost of 
effort. 

Play thus used as a means of instruction is a serious re- 
flection upon the subject matter taught or the teacher teach- 
ing. Something is wrong when so much ingenuity is required 
in adapting games as means of securing ends in certain 
traditional subject matter.^ There is something abnormal 
in school work if those activities of children that are normal 
to them out of school must be used as the motives and the 
means of giving instruction in forms of education not found 
in normal life. 

Students, teachers, and writers who advocate more atten- 
tion to play should be encouraged in this attitude in so far 
as they advocate play for its own sake as a phase of normal 
life. However, there seems to be no need for the attempt 
to justify play in education only as a means of teaching or 
learning. Teachers of manual training and art crafts very 
generally justify their work in the curriculum on the basis 
of the occasion provided for arithmetical calculation, for 
drawing and design, for attracting pupils to school, etc. 
This attitude implies that the manual and artistic crafts 
are not to be justified aside from their relation to other 
subjects. The justification for play and for various of the 
manual arts may well be found in the simple fact that they 
are phases of normal life. From this viewpoint neither 
play nor the manual arts can be justifiably used as means 
^ This situation wUl be further discussed in Chapter Eighteen. 



316 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

of teaching any of the formal school subjects. Instead, 
then, of promoting education through the instrumentality 
of play, play itself should be developed through education. 

PLAY THROUGH EDUCATION 

Justification for play. The mere fact that play is recog- 
nized as one phase of the normal life of children justifies its 
place in the curriculum. The problem of relgitive values 
cannot be overlooked at this point. Arithmetic has held 
an important place in the curriculum on the basis of its being 
a tool in real life. In arithmetic and in other common 
branches the pupil studies the instruments he is expected to 
use later in real life. Tradition accepts the usefulness of 
such tools as the justification for their high places in the 
curriculum. As has been pointed out in earlier chapters, 
there is a marked tendency in modern education to call for 
more attention to the direct study of real life in place of the 
instruments of real life. This tendency is simply a change 
in the relative values which society is assigning to real 
activities in life and the means of conducting those activi- 
ties. In his shop, store, or bank, the blacksmith, the grocer, 
or the cashier does not experience " arithmetic." He uses 
arithmetical subject matter in his work. Such work is 
one phase of real life to this adult. To children of ele- 
mentary school age play is no less a normal and essential 
phase of their lives. Real life, as an end, is of more value 
than school studies, as a means. Thus the place which 
play has in the lives of children is its justification for recogni- 
tion in school, where the purpose is to help boys and girls do 
better in all those wholesome activities in which they normally 
engage. 

Function of education. In helping children to play better, 
education finds a specific function. Social eflSciency without 
specific reference is too indefinite to mean much. When 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 317 

analyzed in terms of real life the function of education is to 
improve the varied social and industrial activities of people. 
The instruments of this education are, by common consent 
and experience, found in the usual school studies, reading, 
writing, arithmetic, etc. The grocer finds that a knowledge 
of certain arithmetical combinations contributes to his 
success. But this arithmetical knowledge is quite subor- 
dinate to his knowledge of the kinds and qualities of his 
goods and the needs of his customers. His chief study is 
his customers and his goods. Arithmetic functions as a 
means in this specific form of life. 

Similarly in the play life of children, the leading problem 
is that of relationship to playmates and the selection of play 
materials. The study is largely a social one. Now to the 
extent that subject matter in arithmetic, language, draw- 
ing, etc., can contribute to the improvement of these play 
activities, to that extent education in terms of the common 
branches functions just as it does in the life of the grocer 
and the banker. 

Play and the Three R's. This view of the function of 
education reverses the relative values usually assigned to 
the Three R's and play. Education through play subor- 
dinates a phase of real life — play — to the position of means 
in the acquisition of knowledge of forms and processes in 
arithmetic, reading, writing, etc. This view can be held 
only by those who would regard the play life of children 
as a mere means to something more valuable. Or, perhaps, 
the advocates of play are afraid to rely upon the inherent 
value of play and so compromise with their own ideals and 
permit play to be subordinated to the formalities of the 
traditional subjects. Play through education reverses the 
relative values. Like commerce and industry, play calls 
upon the Three R's for such assistance as can be rendered 
by them. But in play the greatest problem is probably a 



318 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

social one. How can children play more beautifully to- 
gether? How can they appreciate more highly the good 
playing of others? How can they play more skillfully 
without at the same time interfering with the skillful play- 
ing of others? In short, how can the play life of children 
be carried on with more wholesome pleasure to all con- 
cerned? Improvement in play along these lines will be 
made largely by practice, not by theory. But close observa- 
tion convinces one that play is not only improved by practice 
but is also helped by the means of subject matter included 
in the traditional subjects of reading, arithmetic, drawing, 
language, etc. Numbers will help the players in measuring 
and recording relative skill in games where individual com- 
petition is prominent. Drawing will frequently help chil- 
dren in observing more closely posture and movement that 
contribute to the success of players. The reading of reports 
of their games as played or of stories of games played by 
other children contributes to the thoughtfulness and the 
skill of the children. This study, in consequence, means 
better results and greater satisfaction. 

Play must not be used as a means or device in securing 
better number work by the pupils. Numbers should be 
used in betterment of the game. The common branches 
are of value in relation to the service they can render to 
the activities of real life. Play is above service as a 
means. It is a phase of life to be served by the common 
branches. 

Play as a motive in school work. Much has been said 
of play as a motive in school work. To the extent that this 
motive is appealed to for the purpose of securing a more 
favorable attitude of the pupil toward the traditional school 
work, to that extent education is acquired through play. 
This abuse was discussed above. But there is another 
aspect of the play motive. Quite in contrast to the motiva- 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 319 

tion of arithmetic, geography, etc., for which teachers expend 
so much energy, play itself is strongly motivated. Pupils 
are strongly disposed to play. Under normal circumstances 
no effort is required to induce children to play. To take 
advantage of this motive and use it as a means of inducing 
response to arithmetic is an injustice to the play inclination 
and to the child. On the other hand, if this motive is 
recognized and if provision is made for its realization in 
play activities, just treatment of the instinct is shown. 
The realization of strong play motives will be accompanied 
by wider acquaintance with number combinations, by 
increase in ability to use better language forms, both oral 
and written, by some facility in drawing, etc. The motive 
for play should be encouraged, for the sake of the play, not 
as an aid to arithmetic. Arithmetic may be said to be 
motivated only in so far as its subject matter is clearly used 
as a means of improving the play. 

GAMES USED IN PLAY 

Periods in play life. Much has been written upon the 
periods in the play life of children.^ Such periods or stages 
are suggested as : the mere frolic stage ; the imitative or 
dramatic stage; the stage of self-assertion or individual 
initiative; the stage of loyalty or that period when the 
sense of social relationship becomes strong. Then, too, 
more specific age periods are marked out, for example : 

Period One (ages 0-3). This is the period of physical 
adjustment. Physical movements are of the nature of 
play activities. 

Period Two (ages 4-6) . The motor side of life is promi- 
nent. Imitation is characteristic of play at this time. 

^ Compare Johnson, G. E., Education by Plays and Games, pages 65-222; 
Lee, Joseph, " Playground Education," Educatiorwl Review, Vol. 22, pages 
449-471. 



320 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Period Three (ages 7-9) . This is a period of lull in physi- 
cal development. The aimless romping period is over. 
The child plays games where results are of interest. 

Period Four (ages 10-12). "The child is at the height 
of physical activity. More games are played now than 
at any other age." A great variety of games is in demand. 

Period Five (Ages 13-15). This is the period of most 
rapid growth. Competitive and cooperative games calling 
for great physical activity are in demand. 

Such emphasis upon stages or periods in the play life 
of children is seemingly based upon studies in the physical 
and psychical changes in child life.^ But the practical 
school man dealing constantly with children in the everyday 
school cannot but be somewhat skeptical of the correspond- 
ence of these periods with the normal play activities. There 
is serious danger of robbing children of the beautiful spirit 
in play if games are arranged by the adult in accordance 
with his own classification. The child in his activities is 
much more a creature of his environment than a subject of 
age or stage periods. Boys play at marbles in alleyways 
and in unfrequented parkways in springtime rather than 
in " period four." Spinning tops and shooting marbles are 
good " signs of spring." Neither men nor babies play at 
either, but boys of all ages engage in these pleasurable 
activities. Children are very susceptible to suggestion. 
Like sheep, they follow a good leader. They are quite 
ready to play a great variety of games (if physically quali- 
fied) when a good leader enters heart and soul into their 
play. Here is the opportunity for the teacher at school. 

Play and games. Children need not be taught to play. 
To play is instinctive. What to play and how to play are 
the teacher's problems. Games are exercises for play. 

* For interesting classifications of periods of childhood, see Chamberlain, 
A. F., The Child, pages 51-105. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 321 

There are play activities which are not to be classed as 
games. Little lambs gambol over the meadow. Children 
run about in great glee. Games are those playful activi- 
ties that are governed by some regulations. Many games 
call for considerable intellectual effort in following the 
regulations or in judging of ways and means of successful 
competition. Appropriate regulations enrich the game. 
Intellectual effort in guiding one's play adds greatly to the 
real fun in the activity. Animals and savages play without 
thinking, but children in civilized communities get more 
real fun and satisfaction in their playing when such playing 
is, to some extent, under the direction of the intellect. 
Games are the instruments thus used in play. Thinking 
has much to do with the wholesome fun in good baseball. 
Modern football calls for concentration of mind as well as 
muscle. Compare the real fun in these well-directed games 
with that in " scrub " baseball and the earlier thoughtless 
kicking of the football. 

Nature of games. The usual recess play is for recreation 
only. Recess is a period for relaxation. There is too little 
time allowed then for much directed play. Play discussed 
in this chapter is intended for school -time as other subjects. 
The games used must provide wholesome fun for the chil- 
dren, but more, they must help children to play better. If 
the thoughtful game contributes more genuine pleasure to 
the civilized child than the mere thoughtless frolic, games 
that are truly developmental should be arranged. Great 
care must be taken that the thought element is real and 
enriches the game, not feigned and a mere encumbrance. 
As an example of the latter take a bean-bag game for chil- 
dren of the lower grades. The bags are pitched into con- 
centric square boxes. The teacher arranges that a score of 
ten be allowed for each bag tossed into the outermost of 
the three boxes ; five for each bag reaching the middle box ; 



322 CHILD LIFE AND THE CUERICULUM 

and one for each bag entering the inner box. Here is an 
arbitrary assignment of values in reverse order of skill 
required in tossing the bags. The teacher who arranges 
such a game evidently has her thought upon certain number 
combinations rather than upon the game and the thoughtful 
use of numbers to enhance the fun in the game. 

Care must be taken that the games are wholesome. Games 
which expose the weakness of a player to the taunts of 
others are out of place. Games which are silly and point- 
less should be discarded. Only games which have a re- 
fining influence should be used. Only those games should 
be used in school which may be used, as such or in a slightly 
modified form, out of school. Teachers and parents must 
be constant judges of the character of the games. 

Classification of games. Boys and girls will seldom think 
of games in any classified form. One good game is a game to 
be played. So is another. Adults who list games classify 
them in many ways. The chief purpose of any classification 
is to assist the teacher in suggesting variety for the pupils. 
The games used in the curriculum at the University Ele- 
mentary School are arranged in five classes, purely as a 
convenience to the teachers. 

1 . Competitive games, of two kinds : 

a. Relay or group competition. 

b. Individual competition. 

2. Games largely of a physical nature. 

3. Games largely of a mental nature. 

4. Singing games. 

5. Outdoor games. 

Some selected games. A few of the games used are 
here listed. Each merits time and attention as one of the 
school studies. Each one admits of that development 
which calls for real study. In this respect the games vary 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 323 

in value, yet some will be used but little except as recrea- 
tion at recess time. 

Ball Cylinder 

Bean Bag Ruth and Jacob 

Tops Checkers 

Roly Poly Fox and Geese 

Spin the Plate Poison 

Tag Charades 

Marbles Dominoes 

Tenpins Picture Puzzle 

Ring Toss Quoits 

Pitching Pennies Duck on Rock 

The bean-bag games as illustration. Space here does 
not permit suggestions for the development of these games. 
One game, partially developed, is presented in Appendix F. 
This game, as many others, is played in a variety of ways 
by pupils in the first three grades, the interest increasing 
from grade to grade. The interest seems to be due largely 
to the increasing complexity possible in the game and the 
consequent increase in the demand for thoughtful self- 
direction in playing. 

PLAY ACTIVITIES — OTHER THAN GAMES 

Limitations of the game. The game is largely social, 
and is arranged for groups of players. There are, however, 
some games, such as solitaire, which may be played by one 
individual. But children find " companions " other than 
boys and girls — they early learn to find certain play with 
nature, plant life, animal life, and physical phenomena. 
Since children and adults must, at times, be alone, the 
school is under obligation to help them " do better " in 

^ Another volume is in preparation which will give a more extended 
treatment of games. 



324 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

their play relationship to nature as well as in games. These 
play activities are suggested primarily for pupils in and 
above Grade IV. 

Various play activities. The following outline of plays 
with physical phenomena is given by Professor Hetherington 
in his report of The Play School of 1913. 

Water. — Playing with water, pouring, wading, splashing, watching ob- 
jects in water, throwing objects into water, building dams and water wheels, 
watching the action of water on land, "erosion models," etc., which develop 
problems in fluids. 

Air. — Playing with air, sail-boats, kites, windmills, aeroplanes, which 
develop problems in air pressure, air currents, wind, temperature, humidity, 
rainfall, etc. 

Heat. — Watching fire, making fires, observing friction and heat, playing 
with toy steam engines, thermometers, which develop problems in heat, 
combustion, expansion, and contraction, and other effects of heat. 

Mechanical Devices. — Playing with hoops, tops, pulleys, wheels, toy ma- 
chines, gyroscopes, pendulums, levers, watching thrown objects, balancing 
objects, etc., which develop problems in motor dynamics. 

Sound. — Vocalization, beating and drumming, blowing on toy instru- 
ments, "listening to shells," speaking-tubes and telephones, experimenting 
with conduction through air, water, and timbers, with vibrating bodies, 
echoes, etc., which develop problems in vibration, noises, tones, music, etc. 

Light. — Playing with reflectors, mirrors, prisms, lenses, water refrac- 
tion, glasses, telescopes, which develop problems in light, color, optics, time, 
etc. 

Electricity. — Experimenting and playing with magnets, batteries, in- 
duction coils, telephones, telegraph instruments, dynamos, electric motors, 
electric lights, etc., which present problems in electrodynamics.^ 

The group " Mechanical Devices " might include what is 
appropriately called " tinkering." Boys enjoy taking apart 
watches, clocks, locks, electric bells, etc., and reconstruct- 
ing them. Rightly directed this becomes real training in 
handicrafts. In its first stages, however, it is pure play, 
which is the primary value here. 

These play activities may also include : 
^ University of California Publications, Education, Vol. 5, No. 2, page 273. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 325 

1. Making collections : ^ postage stamps ; coins ; cartoons, 
political and humorous ; pictures of men, scenery, industries, 
etc. ; humorous anecdotes ; choice bits of poems and im- 
portant sayings. Girls make some extensive and instructive 
collections of textiles. 

%. Preparing puzzles, tricks, magic performances, etc., 
so far as these are wholesome. 

3. Photography and blue printing. 

4. Social, literary, and dramatic activities. 

5. Typewriting and job printing. 

6. Constructive occupations, especially the making of 
toys, puzzles, and the like. 

All these play activities not only meet 'present needs in 
the play life of children, but, secondarily, they contribute 
much to preparing children for various occupations which 
they may take up later as work. Much of the voluntary 
activity of children, in their leisure time, consists of the 
kind of activities here suggested. Such pastime employ- 
ments mean much to the home and community life of chil- 
dren, especially boys of from nine to twelve years of age. 
Play activities of this kind are wholesome in contrast to 
the idleness and mischief into which children fall if not 
constantly employed and directed. The home and com- 
munity profit too by this occupation of the young people. 
This present enjoyment is the primary purpose of these 
play activities. To help the boys and girls find more 
genuine satisfaction in such things is the opportunity and 
responsibility of the school. 

Secondarily, but no less effectively, the children will be 
acquiring an interest in many activities that may be real 
work later. Whittier's barefoot boy and many boys of 
that type have acquired their best education through play 

1 G. Stanley Hall gives a long and suggestive list of collections in Child 
Life and Education, pages 205-239. 



326 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

activities suggested above. But such work products are 
essentially by-products of these activities arranged primarily 
for immediate enjoyment. 

CONDUCT OF PLAY IN SCHOOL 

Initial stage. Playing of carefully chosen games should 
constitute the first exercise for the first-grade pupils on 
their first day at school. Six-year-old children enter school 
with much embarrassment and timidity. One finds one's 
own experience is the story of Emmy Lou,^ in which is 
depicted the strangeness of the school. Children come from 
homes where play has been the large part of their lives. 
Teachers believe in the principle of apperception, but at 
this particularly appropriate point of application practice 
is quite at variance with theory. A somewhat novel game 
such as bean-bag relay, providing for active participation 
by all the pupils, puts them at once " off their guard." The 
game should be one in which the individual is not con- 
spicuous when playing; it should also be one that en- 
courages free conversation. To be unconscious of self in 
a strange place is the first step in good school progress. 
Just this step the traditional school makes impossible for 
the pupils on the first day. From the point of view of the 
nature and the experience of childhood, play merits being 
the initial exercise in school. 

Schedule. Mark Twain was once asked to write for a 
weekly humorous paper. He answered in the negative, 
saying, " I cannot be funny at regular intervals," Ob- 
jection is made by some that play should not be scheduled. 
As recreation, relaxation, or rest, play might well be allowed 
when needed. As a phase in the normal life of children, 
it may well be scheduled as any other activity, though the 

^ Martin, G. M., Emmy Lou. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY S27 

ironclad schedule of the traditional school should not 
prevail. Circumstances should freely alter the schedule 
planned. On the basis of relative values play merits as 
much as one hour each day, especially in the first two or 
three grades. Except for the first few days in the first 
grade — as suggested above — the play hour may ad- 
visably be scheduled in the afternoon. But the " hour " 
should vary in length, according to circumstances, especially 
the interests and attitudes of the pupils. Play activities 
in the intermediate and upper grades probably would not 
merit, relative to other phases of school occupation, as 
much as an hour each day. An hour two or three times each 
week may be sufficient, but the time schedule should be 
governed largely by local conditions. 

Active play and helpful study. Playing the game in- 
cludes more than the physical activity involved. A study 
of how the game is played and how individual players may 
play better is essential. Good playing of marbles, tenpins, 
ball-target, and the like depends much upon posture and 
movement. Studying these through observation and draw- 
ings, and devising skillful ways and means of keeping score 
contribute to effective playing ; free discussion on methods 
of playing adds much. Such study would be work in draw- 
ing, numbers, and language were such studies not functioning 
so directly in the play activities. Indeed, experience indi- 
cates that such study of the game Is an inherent part in the 
play activity. As indicated earlier, here is the difference 
between the play of children and the play of lower animals. 
Some thinking contributes to the satisfaction of the play. 
The teacher must carefully guard against too much em- 
phasis on study. There is danger that study may take 
precedence over the game. In such case the game becomes 
only a constructed opportunity for study. One principle 
alone can regulate this, viz., the study in observing poise 



328 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

and movement, in keeping score, in discussing the method of 
playing, must be stopped when it ceases to contribute to the 
fun in the game. 

VALUES IN PLAY 

Chief value. The chief value of play is the most natural 
one, namely, fun. As insisted earlier, play is one phase 
in the normal life of children. Fun, personal pleasure and 
satisfaction, is its leading characteristic. Moreover, play 
functions immediately in the lives of the children. The 
values of work are deferred. 

By-products of play. The usually assigned values of 
play are here regarded as only its by-products. Those who 
attempt to justify play as an excellent instrument in the 
hands of teachers to induce pupils to work supplement this 
value by adding other results achieved through play. A few 
of these may be referred to here. 

1. Play fosters physical development.^ " Play tends 
to develop a man of the type of Apollo rather than Hercules. 
Apollo is the athlete; Hercules, the gymnast. . . . Play 
does, however, tend to give physical efficiency, a good car- 
riage, a full chest, a bright eye, a good complexion, grace, 
a stable nervous system, a good digestion, a healthy sex 
development, strong heart and lungs, and robust health." 

2. " Play furnishes the very best mental training. Watch 
even a game of tag. The sense organs are all alert. The 
attention is focused on one point." - " Play is the one 
universal stimulus to the intelligence of the child." * Team 
play is regarded (by play leaders) as the greatest of mental 
stimuli. 

^ Compare Curtis, H. S., Education through Play, pages 17-46, and other 
writings listed by him on page 46. 

^ Tyler, J. M., Growth and Education, page 208. 
» Curtis, H. S., Education through Play, page 56. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 329 

3. Play opens the way for emotional natures to express 
themselves. The playful individual more readily laughs, 
cries, and sympathizes. " Those who play together quickly 
become friends." 

4. Play makes almost unlimited contribution to moral 
training. " In his play is developed the selfhood of the 
child. In the play of the boy are developed individuality 
and sense of personal power, with some sense of relation to 
others. In the games of youth the individual becomes 
subordinated to the whole." ^ The spirit of loyalty, de- 
mocracy, honesty, justice, and the strength of the will, 
all are developed through play.^ 

Play enthusiasts make statements suflBciently sweeping 
to include about all that belongs to education. In one of 
his earlier studies, Johnson arranged four hundred and 
forty games to provide the all-round development of the 
child.^ These games are arranged for each of the eight 
grades in nine groups according to the dominant purpose 
which they serve. These nine groups with two or three 
typical games for each are as follows : 

Attention : Cat and Mouse, Simon Says, Baseball. 

Memory : Geography, Judge and Jury. 

Observation : I Spy, Fox and Geese, Jenkins Up. 

Reading and Spelling : Sliced Pictures, Spelling Match, Lotto. 

Language : Cupid Comes, Crambo, Novels. 

Arithmetic : Buzz, Playing Store, Morra. 

Geography : Rivers, Dissected Maps. 

History and Biography : Authors, Literary Whist. 

Physical Training : A wide range of athletic activities. 

A statement by this author, referring to one of the games, 
is typical of the statements made in brief form of all these 
games : " Baseball calls for great activity of mind and body, 

1 Johnson, G. E., Education by Plays and Games, page 46. 
* Curtis, H. S., Education through Play, pages 59-84. 
s Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 3, pages 97-133. 



330 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

is excellent for the eye, muscular sense, attention, dis- 
crimination, judgment, will, self-possession, courage, quick- 
ness, hand, arm, thigh, calf; good for reasoning, chest, 
back, waist, abdominal muscles and neck, and is especially 
valuable as a general exercise." 

This curriculum of games was not proposed as a practical 
scheme for actual school use. It was a speculative arrange- 
ment, ingeniously done. It expresses, however, just the 
emphasis so generally given to certain values of play. " Play, 
in childhood ... is concerned with everything; emotions, 
feelings, acts, thoughts, imaginings, speech, all begin their 
career under its subtle, shaping injQuence. . . . Language, 
poetry, art, science, all begin in child-play. ..." Perhaps 
it is in the belief that it is necessary to find in play all these 
values as means of leading people to give it more credence, 
that play leaders marshal together such values of play. 

Play as a phase of child life. It is here recognized that 
the values of play are many and diversified. If these values 
are greater than result from the work activities of children, 
it is probably due to the greater number of activities and 
their greater range in the realm of play than in that of work. 
But it must be insisted that the chief purpose of play is to 
meet the immediate needs of child life. Play is one phase of 
that life. It must not be overlooked that the play life of 
the child is of great concern in the home and community. 
To play better — especially with less annoyance and less 
disturbance — is asked by the home and community as one 
of the normal modes of child behavior. Groos says : " There 
are numerous ways to direct the child's play to useful pur- 
poses." ^ Ethical character is pointed to as one of the 
products of play activities. It may readily be conceded 
that wholesome play does develop commendable character. 
But one must then ask: What is the value of character? 
^ Groos, K., Play of Man, page 403. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 331 

Surely, character in the abstract, isolated from contact with 
one's fellows, is of no value. The character of an individual 
is tested — valued — by its influence over his dealings with 
others. How much consideration is given to the character 
of a strict hermit.'' Of what value is his character so long 
as he has no relationship with other men ? ^ 

" Play at its best is only a school of ethics. It gives not 
only strength but courage and confidence, tends to simplify 
life and habits, gives energy, decision, and promptness to 
the will, brings consolation and peace of mind in evil days, 
is a resource in trouble and brings out individuality." ^ 
Interaction between people is the life of people. And char- 
acter becomes a means of enabling an individual to conduct 
himself commendably among others. Thus character is 
of great consequence in the play of children. To play well 
is of value in itself, for it is the normal life of children. 
Character is valued according to its efficacy in promoting 
this play. 

If virtues and values of play must be arrayed for later 
use as the persuasive argument for a place for play in the 
education of the yoimg, it must still be insisted that such 
values are fundamentally secondary. Play can have no 
higher value than to be one phase of the normal life of 
children. 

THEORIES OF PLAY 

Theory. At the close of this discussion of play a few 
statements may be made on the theory of play. It has prob- 
ably become evident to the reader that the theory under- 
lying the play herein advocated is quite distinct from theories 
advanced by others. Theory is only an expression of prin- 
ciples that underlie experience. The only reason for pre- 

^ The hermit's character might of course be valued by his treatment of 
himself or nature about him. 

2 Hall, G. S., Youth, pages 76-77. 



332 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

senting certain theories at the close of this discussion is to 
place the position taken in this chapter quite in contrast 
to positions so usually taken in reference to play. 

Play as release of surplus energy. The surplus energy 
theory was propounded by Spencer. When an animal does 
not need all its energy to maintain its living, the unused 
energy is expended in activity not needed for life. This 
activity is called play. On the biological principle that an 
organ without function would soon wither away, it would be 
expected that in the long life of the human race, play beyond 
the necessities of life would cease to exist. The increasing 
attention given to play quite sets aside such an idea. Play 
does not vanish from human life as an organ no longer 
needed. It remains because it functions as a part of life 
itself and, though quite incidentally, contributes some 
assistance to other phases of life. Moreover, children — 
and other animals — often play far beyond the mere using 
of their surplus energy. 

Play as a method of education. The biologist has pointed 
out that in the lower forms of animal life adjustment is so 
simple that the young are born almost into adult life. As 
the organism becomes more complex and adjustment more 
complicated, a longer period is required to learn to adjust. 
This is the period of infancy.^ During this period of infancy 
the child plays and this play provides that education needed 
preparatory to the adjustments of the adult. This theory 
was advocated by Groos. It is easy to understand how the 
play of the young does help educate them for the activities 
of the adult. But must the meaning of infancy be inter- 
preted only in relation to its contribution to adulthood? 
This preparatory relation of infancy to adulthood was the 
view emphasized by John Fiske. Increase of intelligence 
in the human race necessitated a prolongation of infancy, 
1 Compare Fiske, John, The Meaning of Infancy, 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 

that the future adult might not only be prepared to adjust 
himself, but also to advance civihzation. On this principle, 
play, as one large phase in the period of infancy, is seized 
upon as an effective means of educating children for adult 
life. It has already been conceded that play does educate ; 
that there are valuable by-products of this instinctive 
activity. But to regard infancy (which Fiske grants is 
about one third of human life) as a mere means of preparing 
for adult life, and play as dominantly a method of education 
is to undervalue the life of children, A prolonged infancy 
does develop and play does educate the young; but the 
greatest objection to child mortality is not that the life fails 
to reach maturity, but that a little one is deprived of his 
right to live. The greatest function of children's play is 
in serving not as a method of development but as a mode 
of living. 

Play as race recapitulation. The human race has prob- 
ably always had some play. But many of the simpler work 
activities of primitive people are used now by the child as 
play activities. In reproducing — in modified form — the 
activities of the savage the modern child finds his pleasure, 
" I regard play as the motor habits and spirit of the past of 
the race, persisting in the present, as rudimentary functions 
sometimes of and always akin to rudimentary organs. . . . 
Thus we see that play is not doing things to be useful later, 
but it is rehearsing racial history," ^ 

Racial recapitulation may account for play in the present 
generation of children to the extent of declaring that through- 
out history the human race has played, " In play every 
mood and movement is instinct with heredity. Thus we 
rehearse the activities of our ancestors, , . ." ^ Children 
reexperience the play spirit of their forebears, and some 

1 Hall, G. S., Adolescence, Vol. I, pages 202, 207. 

2 Ibid., page 202. 



334 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

games are modifications of activities of primitive people. 
But the hundreds of games and means of amusement show- 
more and more their dependence upon modern life and 
modern conditions. 

Moreover, the theory of play as race recapitulation, when 
such play is mere " rehearsing racial history " and not for 
the purpose of being useful, becomes very much like the 
theory of play as the release of surplus energy. That theory 
does not seem plausible. Again, the theory that play is 
only a rehearsing of racial history is not satisfying. Un- 
less play activities can be linked very intimately with 
present life or related to future effort, it cannot be justified. 

Play as simply a phase of normal life. An attempt to 
be simple in explanation is in danger of being judged un- 
scientific or unscholarly. But children are simple, and 
explanation of their lives should be as simple as possible. 
The view which adults take of the play life of children has 
much to do with their directing of such play life. Why 
search so much for explanations and purposes of play? 
Why do men work.^* Many work, of course, to earn their 
living; and many to provide for much more than mere 
living. The savage worked little. We may say he played 
little. In the light of our present civilization we say he 
lived little. The little work of primitive man and the great 
work of our twentieth century captain of industry are a 
manner of life, a manner of life determined by circum- 
stances. Likewise, play is one phase of the normal life of 
childhood. It is found in modified form in adult life. In- 
quire closely for its explanation and its purpose, and life 
itself must be examined. The child is by nature very active. 
Play is one of his normal ways of expressing that activity. 

" Groos w^ell says that children are young because they 
play, and not vice versa; and he might have added, men 
grow old because they stop playing, and not conversely, for 



SCHOOL STUDIES — PLAY 335 

play is, at bottom, growth. . . ." ^ Play may well be 

regarded by the educator and teacher without reference to 

its rehearsal of the activities of the past and without concern 

for its contribution to the education for the future, but with 

primary interest in it as a phase of the normal present life of 

children. This view prevents the abuse of play as a mere 

agency in learning, and leads to the treatment of children as 

children. 

Supplementary Readings 

Curtis, H. S. Education through Play, pages 1-355. 

Dewey, J. Schools of Tomorrow, pages 103-131. 

Freeman, F. N. How Children Learn, pages 56-77. 

Gaylet, C. M. Idols, pages 113-118. 

Groos, K. The Play of Man, pages 361-406. 

Hall, G. S. Youth, pages 73-119. 

Johnson, G. E. Education by Plays and Games, pages 1-222. 

KiRKPATRicK, E. A. Fundamentals of Child Study, pages 147-164. 

Lee, Joseph. "Playground Education." Educational Review, Vol. 22, 

pages 449-471. 
Mangold, G. B. Child Problems, pages 95-116. 
Meriam, J. L. " Play as a Motive." Proceedings of the Missouri State 

Teachers' Association, 1909. 
Tyler, J. M. Growth and Education, pages 198-217, 

General References 

Addams, Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Street. 

Baldwin, J. M. Social and Ethical Interpretations, pages 148-156. 

Bowen, Louise. Safeguards for City Youth at Work and at Play. 

Chamberlain, A. F. The Child, pages 1-105. 

Curtis, H. S. Play and Recreation. 

Eliot, T. D. The Juvenile Court and the Community. 

FisKE, John. The Meaning of Infancy. 

Hall, G. S. Adolescence, Vol. I, pages 202-236. 

Hetherington, C. W. The Demonstration Play School of 1913. 

Lee, Joseph. Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy. 

Reeder, R. R. How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn. 

ZuEBLiN, C. American Municipal Progress, pages 296-325. 

^ Hall, G. S., Adolescence, Vol. I, page 235. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Fifteen 

Stories, including music, poetry, and pictures, is proposed as one ol 

four subjects in the elementary school curriciilum. 
Leisure in the community suggests leisure in the school. 
Leisure is one phase of civilized life. 
The story is one of the wholesome agencies in spending leisure 

time. 
The use of the story in leisure becomes a problem for the 
schools. 
"Reading" in the traditional school is inadequate. 
Too little time as leisure is provided. 
Literary materials used are too meager. 
Pupils have no suitable motive for reading. 
Story materials must be chosen with care. 

In the lower grades stories should be characterized by playful 

activity. 
In the upper grades acquaintance with a wide range of whole- 
some story material is an important guide to leisure reading. 
The conduct of the story hour must be for the purpose of wholesome 
enjoyment. 

Learning' to read is incidental. 
Telling of stories should be prominent. 

Individual silent reading, with occasional group conference, 
should predominate. 
Results are gratifying. 

The amount of reading is large. 
Wholesome pleasure characterizes leisure. 



336 



CHAPTER FIFTEEN 

School Studies — Stories 
leisure and stories 

The problem of leisure. The general problem of leisure 
and the relation of the school to this problem has been pre- 
sented in an earlier chapter. Leisure is considered as 
coordinate with work ; the two constitute two phases of life. 
We do not work for the purpose of the leisure to be enjoyed ; 
we do not occupy leisure time as mere recreation after 
fatiguing work. Work is one form of living; leisure is 
another form. The life of any individual is very much 
restricted if either work or leisure is wanting. But it must 
not be inferred from this that work and leisure are equal in 
importance and extent. Most people probably devote more 
time, energy, and thought to work than to leisure. The 
present status of society demands this. Further, work and 
leisure constitute the lives of children as well as adults. 
We may well presume that the ratio of work to leisure is 
larger with adults than with children. That is, a very much 
larger portion of the time and effort of adults is spent in 
productive effort than in leisure. Children spend more time 
and energy in leisure than they do in work. This fact 
suggests that the problem of the school in dealing with 
children is quite other than it would be were adults enrolled 
in school instead of children. Here again is a reminder that 
we must be guarded in our viewpoint. We are dealing 
with children, not adults. 

There is danger that the school program be controlled by 
adult accomplishments rather than by the immediate needs 
of children. We must not think of story materials and the 
methods of treating them as instruments of the school in 
transforming children into adults. Such a procedure would 

337 



338 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

mean work to the children. The child has a right to his own 
leisure and to the story used for that purpose. 

The story and forms of leisure. There is a great variety 
of ways of spending leisure time. Among little people play- 
ing games is prominent, perhaps predominant. In youth and 
adult life a variety of social amusements and activities takes 
the place of games in earlier years. But adults are not 
without their own games, such as golf, pool, cards. The 
playhouse in various forms, such as the moving picture and 
the theater, attracts large numbers of adults. The public 
library and periodical rooms are frequented by adults in 
leisure time. The daily paper, weekly and monthly maga- 
zines, and a great variety of books are the means adults 
provide at their own homes for spending their few minutes 
or many hours of leisure. 

The story is presented in this chapter as a special way for 
children to spend leisure, by reason of its wholesome influ- 
ence and of its ready availability. There is no implication 
here that other forms of leisure are not wholesome or that 
the story is always so. It may, however, be said that the 
story is more readily subjected to criticism and censure 
and thus stories of an unwholesome nature are the more 
likely to be rejected by the public. In the course of time 
such sifting of the story materials should lead to a literature 
of a higher type. Just this, of course, is ever taking place. 
It must be recognized, however, that much of that recently 
written seems not to have profited by the adverse criticisms 
of earlier writings. Thus, in spite of the fact that the 
permanent form of the printed story makes possible a severer 
criticism than may be given to games and theatricals, harmful 
literature does reach the leisure reader, both young and old. 
Yet the story within easy reach is unquestionably more 
wholesome than harmful ; and in these good stories we 
have the accumulation of the best thoughts of the ages. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 339 

Marked advances in publishing and keen competition in 
extensive sales place the best of stories within easy reach of 
all. Even the best of stories are inexpensive. The theater 
may be attended only at set times when it is arranged to 
accommodate many. Most games and social activities as 
means of spending leisure require groups of people. But 
the story within the reach of all may be enjoyed by an 
individual reader in his own leisure time. It has also to 
its credit the social opportunities of the game and the theater. 
The group in leisure may enjoy the story as well as the 
individual. Thus by reason of its wholesome influence and 
its availability the story is presented as the most commend- 
able means for spending leisure time. 

Music, poetry, pictures. The story printed in prose is the 
most frequent form in which it appears. But the theater 
referred to in the preceding paragraph is in a real sense the 
place where the story is presented in dramatic form. In the 
lower schools many stories may be dramatized though 
the pupils are not yet able to read them. In a yet more 
frequent way children listen to stories as they are told to 
them. Thus the story is presented in various forms. Music 
is one of these forms. The song is a story told in musical 
form. And there are " songs without words." Music 
merits a place in our public schools as a wholesome means 
of spending leisure. At the University Elementary School 
provision is made for piano lessons. Pupils from all grades, 
even the first, are given an opportunity to learn to play the 
piano as a part of their own school program. And a sur- 
prisingly large number avail themselves of this opportunity. 
Provision should be made for lessons upon other instruments. 
Pictures are stories told in yet another way. The picture 
book is the child's first story book. The picture is too early 
set aside as the child grows older. Memory gems have had 
a place in the traditional school for many years. Attention 



340 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

is given them as a part of the opening exercises, or at the 
close of school, or perhaps to fill up time when the school 
routine gets ahead of the schedule. But such memory gems 
are for most pupils empty words, not beautiful stories. 
Poetry is a story beautifully told in rather special form. 
It merits a larger place in the leisure time of children as 
well as of adults. 

The problem for the schools. In compliance with Prin- 
ciple One ^ the schools are under obligation to make provi- 
sions for the immediate needs of children for the enjoyment 
of stories, including music, pictures, and poetry. If the 
story is rated as more wholesome than much of the idleness 
or other forms in which children's leisure is spent, an effort 
must be made to lead children into the habit of resorting 
to the story more generally than to other less helpful forms 
of spending spare time. This means that definite provision 
must be made that leisure be spent in the enjoyment of 
stories. Children, as pupils, must recognize this period 
as quite distinct from working periods. The stories selected 
and the method of treatment must be such as, in the main, 
render immediate and genuine satisfaction to the pupils. 
This immediate satisfaction is of primary importance. 
Quite secondary to this, but not to be overlooked, is the 
problem of leading these pupils into habits of reading and 
developing in them tastes for literature of a wholesome 
character. Society may rightly make such a demand of the 
school. But the school can easily meet that demand, for 
children readily develop habits when their activities are 
enjoyably and energetically carried on. Thus, to meet 
children's later needs in using the story in leisure time, the 
pupils must be led to read freely of literature suited to their 
development and for the same purpose as later, namely, 
immediate pleasure. 

^ Discussed in Chapter Eight. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 341 

INADEQUACY OF " READING" IN THE SCHOOLS 

Little time as leisure. In his study of the distribution of 
time among the various studies and grades of fifty represen- 
tative cities in the United States, Holmes ^ shows the per- 
centage of total time given to " reading " in the eight grades 
as follows : 



I 


II 


III 


IV 


V 


VI 


VII 


VIII 


0.6 


26.1 


20.8 


15.8 


13.1 


12.1 


10. 


9.6 



Thus over one fourth of the time of first grade pupils is given 
over to " reading," while less than one tenth of the time of 
the eighth grade is allowed for the same subject. The aver- 
age for the eight grades is 17.3 per cent. This is a small 
share of school time for leisure, especially when the schedule 
makes little provision for other leisure except the recess 
periods, usually undirected. Other reports, however, show 
the average time for " reading " somewhat higher : Payne 
(1904) 20.7, Elson and Bachman (1910) 23.74, Holmes (1915) 
in a table other than that just referred to, 26.3. 

For leisure reading 26.3 per cent or even 17.3 per cent of 
the school day might be quite adequate. But it is quite 
evident that " reading " in the public schools is not a means 
of spending leisure time. This " reading " is primarily 
work; it is an exercise in acquiring ability to read. Direc- 
tions issued from the office of the New York State Com- 
missioner of Education to the elementary teachers of that 
state may be accepted as representative. " In teaching 
reading in the primary grades the leading purpose is to secure 
the mastery of words. The first step in learning to read is 
to be able to recognize words at sight and at the same time 
to get the ideas which such words represent. . . . There 
should be much drill to secure distinct articulation, correct 

1 Fourteenth Year Book of National Society for the Study of Education, 
1915. 



342 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

pronunciation, and an agreeable tone of voice." ^ In the 
fourth grade emphasis seems to be given to the " proper 
study of the lesson," with especial reference to (1) statement 
of what the lesson contains, (2) meaning of new words, 
(3) drill on pronunciations of different words, (4) oral 
reading. Throughout this syllabus much emphasis is placed 
upon the study of phonics. Even the teacher's reading to 
pupils is not without some attention to work. For example, 
" This reading may be used as a basis for language work." 
Memorizing choice selections is not a part of literature to be 
enjoyed, but is made a part of language work. It must be 
said that in some schools much of the " reading " is made 
positively pleasurable to the pupils, just as some geography 
and some arithmetic are made pleasurable. Yet on the 
whole, the 30 per cent of time in the first grade is largely 
devoted to acquiring the tools for reading, and in the upper 
grades the 10 per cent scheduled for reading is a very small 
amount for leisure even if the " reading " of these upper 
grades were not largely characterized by work. 

Meager material used. There is in recent years a very 
marked increase in the amount of reading done by pupils 
in the public schools. On the other hand, it must be said 
that the amount as yet being read is very small. Two, 
three, or four readers in the first grade are the limits in 
most schools. A standard reader is used as a text in each of 
the other grades through the sixth and in some schools in 
the seventh and eighth grades. One, two, or three sets of 
supplementary readers represent the amount read. Some 
schools have libraries, but these schools are too few and the 
library books too limited. 

Moreover, leisure reading out of school is further limited 
by the home lessons assigned. Pupils are not through with 
their school day when school is closed. They are expected 
^ Syllabus for Elementary Schools, 1910, pages 5-6. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 343 

to " study " at home. Comparatively little encouragement 
or provision is made for leisure reading after school hours. 
In theory the school is intended to help children live better 
at home and in the community. In practice this is carried 
out by keeping children busy at lessons. Fortunately many 
children do have leisure books to read; perhaps also for- 
tunately many of these books are given precedence over 
the lessons assigned. But this good fortune for the children 
is not to be credited to the school. 

Lack of suitable motive. Stretched out under a shade 
tree or comfortably seated near the fireplace, a boy or girl 
reads his book leisurely but with active interest prompted 
by the genuine satisfaction that the story supplies. " Read- 
ing " in school ojffers no such motive. Pupils read largely 
as an assigned task. Recognition of words, phonics, enun- 
ciation and pronunciation, inflection and tone of voice, 
reproduction of story — these are exercises by which most 
boys and girls are not attracted. Further, to read before the 
class from a story in the text with which all are acquainted 
is not of interest to pupils. The supplementary reader in 
which sight work may be allowed is but little improvement 
in motivation. True, some pupils exhibit great interest 
in reading aloud before the teacher and pupils to gain their 
commendation, and some pupils appear interested in recita- 
tion upon the interpretation of the reading lesson. However, 
it seems quite clear that such interest is an artificial school 
interest rather than a normal life interest. In real life the 
reading of stories in leisure time is prompted by a genuine 
interest in the story ; silent reading to satisfy self ; reading 
aloud to please others. 

STORY MATERIALS 

The basis of selection. On what basis may books and 
stories be selected for young people to read .'' If we allowed 



344 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

children to select their own, only a few would select well. 
Having found one interesting book, others of that same kind 
would be chosen and the richness of books of another type 
would be lost. Most parents are not acquainted with 
enough books to select wisely, though many do so most 
creditably. Book companies offer the best suggestions they 
have, but their books are limited to their own publications. 
The bookstore has many suggestions, but commercialism 
makes its legitimate limitation. The public library has 
recently undertaken the serious task of selecting books 
that may appeal and yet be wholesome. Through the story- 
teller's hour with groups of children much is being accom- 
plished, but the opportunity is limited to the volunteer 
child and to him, too, at infrequent times. Many, if not 
most, school superintendents are as yet quite obliged by 
circumstances to make compromises in selecting materials 
for reading in their schools. They are thus seriously handi- 
capped. Various studies of current practices have been made 
in the use of literature in the grades. Here it is assumed that 
" the consensus of experience in the country, as shown by a 
full tabulation of courses of study, is the surest authority 
as to the rightful position in the elementary school of any 
particular literary selection." ^ The trial-and-error experi- 
mentation that is going on throughout the country is good 
so far as it goes but it has serious limitations. The consensus 
of experience may be a safe guide as to the best place in the 
grades for a given selection of literature, but no contribution 
is thus made to the selection before placement becomes a 
problem. 

In accordance with Principle One ^ two bases for the 
selection of story material are here proposed. First, the 
character and scope of the literature selected must satisfy 

1 Bobbitt, J. F., Elementary School Journal, Vol. 14, page 158, 1913. 

2 See Chapter Eight. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 345 

the varied interests of the children. This does not mean 
that the teacher should simply cater to the whims of pupils, 
individually or collectively. In the outside reading of four 
hundred high school students at Decatur, Illinois, four hun- 
dred and eighteen different titles appear.^ The most popular 
book, read by seventeen students, was Eyes of the World. 
Very significant is the array of authors not found in the list 
of books read, or those read but very little : Hawthorne, 
Scott, Kipling, Cooper, Barrie, Kingsley, Stevenson, and 
George Eliot. It is probably not safe to leave to pupils 
the choice of their reading; yet their interests must be 
satisfied. The truth seems to be that children and youth 
may be easily guided in their reading interests. They need 
suggestions. They need stories opened to them by the 
teacher's reading. But children will readily find genuine 
interest in a great variety of types of literature if they are 
only made acquainted with that variety of readings. Thus 
while children may naturally be interested in one type of 
story, their latent interests will quickly respond to a larger 
acquaintance. To give the pupils this larger acquaintance 
is the duty of teachers. A classification of books is suggested 
below for this purpose, with the expectation that children's 
interests will be satisfied and also considerably widened and 
enriched. 

A second basis for selection is, that in anticipation of later 
life pupils should develop the habit of making intelligent 
selection from a variety of books available. Children soon 
become youths and adults, and are then without guidance by 
teachers. It is too generally the habit of these older people 
to read narrowly under guidance of narrow interests. The 
efficient citizen must be well informed. It is contended in 
this volume that the traditional school curriculum provides 

1 Engleman, J. O., "Outside Reading." The English Journal, Vol. 6, 
pages 20-27. 



/ 



346 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

little information. The young citizen acquires his acquaint- 
ance with the world by experience and reading after his 
school days. The observational studies outlined in Chapter 
Seventeen supply much information, but even this is in- 
sufficient. Much of the information that contributes to the 
success of a man is acquired incidentally, and that largely 
through leisure reading. There is great need for more of 
this. Books on science, invention, travel, history, and others 
portraying a wide range of human experience contribute 
to the making of the well-informed man. The school has 
the opportunity and therefore the responsibility of de- 
veloping in children the tastes and habits for this wider 
reading. 

Taking into account the present interests of pupils and 
their intelligent selection of books later, an eflPort has been 
made to map out leisure readings for the eight grades. 
Leisure reading is the object. These readings must not be 
intentionally correlated with various studies in the school. 
Contribution to other studies will be inevitable, but this 
must be strictly incidental. Any other course would deprive 
this reading of its leisure nature. 

In the lower grades. In the first grade and to quite an 
extent in the second grade the enjoyment of stories cannot 
be limited to those read by the pupils themselves. Stories 
can be told, dramatized, or pictured. In this way the scope 
of materials suitable for children of this age can be much 
greater than if limited to actual reading on their part. 
But whether told, dramatized, pictured, or read, the nature 
of stories that appeal to children in the lower grades is 
common to all. This is playful activity. Much action is 
presented in all the Mother Goose rhymes, and there are 
few of these that lack this happy vein. Pupils in the primary 
grades are not yet fully out of the nursery stage of story. It 
is largely upon this same basis that the fairy tale appeals 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 347 

so strongly to these pupils. Similarly nature stories bring 
to the children representations of the joyous activities in 
plant and animal life. It is by reason of the active rather 
than the reflective response made by children that stories of 
that character are wanted. 

Stories that strongly appeal to these little people are 
thoroughly intermingled with nature that is true to life, and 
nature so personified as to be ridiculously false to life; 
with fairy tales that afford amusement because so impossible 
and true stories of more serious import; with fables that 
carry a moral and stories that depict the true and beautiful 
in nature to influence the behavior of children. So various 
in character is this interesting material read by pupils in the 
primary grades that any attempt to classify these stories 
would be quite impracticable.^ 

Books in the upper grades. In the upper grades, in which 
even the fourth grade might at times be included, a some- 
what ill-defined but definitely purposeful classification of 
books is proposed. In the lower grades pupils flit about 
like butterflies : now here, then suddenly there. They 
find delight in a great variety of stories. As these pupils 
develop, they rapidly acquire rather definite tastes. If 
let alone, they read book after book of the same type. Girls 
may become infatuated with fairy tales or romantic stories, 
and then they read nothing else. Boys may become en- 
grossed with historical legends or accounts of heroic adven- 
ture, and then they read nothing else. But these young 
people would develop interest in a variety of stories if a 
wider acquaintance with stories were encouraged and made 
possible. A very important purpose in directing elementary 
reading is to lead the pupil to realize fully that there is other 
literature than the type into which one's interest has pre- 
maturely fallen. A classification is made for this purpose. 
1 See Appendix A, for such books. 



348 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

By such a classification pupils readily see the varieties of 
reading possible for them. 

No classification of such material could be mutually 
exclusive. There is no definite line of demarcation separating 
these groups, and most classifications differ. The following 
is submitted : ^ 

1. Fables, fairy tales, myths, legends, wonder stories. 

2. Travel, including sightseeing, exploration, adventure, 

scenery, manners, and customs. 

3. Nature. 

4. Industries, invention, science. 

5. History and biography. 

6. Character study — fiction. 

7. Humor. 

On the basis of this classification, or any other, as a means 
by which pupils will be enabled to recognize various types of 
story material and will thus be led to find interest in more 
than one type, important problems arise. What distinc- 
tions in purpose and method of reading these types may 
be made that the reading may be more enjoyable and more 
valuable ? Or, indeed, may any distinction as to purpose 
be made, when all this literature is read in leisure time? 
What other purpose has the reader in leisure than to pass 
the time in a pleasant way ? 

The reader is reminded that the position taken throughout 
this volume is that in giving instruction to pupils in ele- 
mentary schools attention should be placed primarily upon 
meeting present needs, only secondarily upon preparing 
to meet needs as they arise later. The immediate purpose 

1 A recent report of the St. Louis Public Library gives the following 
classes of books for juvenile reading at home. General works. Philosophy, 
Religion, Sociology, Fairy tales, Philology, Natural science. Useful arts, 
Fine arts. Poetry, Fiction, Literature, History, Travel, Biography, Little 
children's fiction. Little children's non-fiction. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 349 

of the boy who takes up a book to read for an hour of leisure 
is to have a good time. If, however, he has an opportunity 
to select his book from among others, he has thought out 
some distinctions between these books, as a reason for 
selecting one rather than another. Moreover, immediate 
satisfaction in reading — by way of spending leisure time 
— is considerably affected by what the reader feels will be 
of value to him at the close of his reading, or some time later. 
There is a real difference in the feelings of satisfaction while 
playing games and while enjoying leisure reading. In play 
the child is essentially unmindful of the pleasure he is getting. 
In leisure reading he is somewhat conscious of enjoying the 
events as presented in the story, and that enjoyment is 
increased as he takes note of how he might use this story 
later. For example, he might tell the story to others for 
their entertainment; he might find more satisfaction for 
himself in his observations in nature or in his talks with 
people. But his own immediate satisfaction while engaged 
in this leisure reading is the primary purpose. The secondary 
purpose, that of making use of this leisure reading in some 
activity later, cannot be overlooked. 

If we recognize different types of reading material, such as 
travel, nature, and character study, and if in this leisure 
reading pupils are at all conscious of purposes other than 
merely passing the time, we may reasonably expect that in 
reading the various types of literature we may have corre- 
spondingly different purposes. That is, in reading a book 
on travel a boy will have a purpose different from that when 
he reads a book on nature. Moreover, with stories quite 
different in character, and different in the purpose in the 
mind of the reader, we may well expect a difference in methods 
of reading. This manner of reading a story due to the 
purpose in the mind of the reader and due also to the nature 
of the story becomes a problem for the teacher. 



350 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

With no intention of making any satisfactory analysis of 
these various types of readings, brief suggestions are here 
offered indicating possible differences in special purposes 
and methods. 

1. Fairy tales, myths, legends, fables, etc. Here the special 
purpose is that of enjoying the flights of imagination of the 
author, with the probable expectation of telling the story 
to others later, or of supplementing one's later enjoyment by 
recalling these flights of imagination. Further, only a little 
iireading of this type will lead the reader to take such flights 
of imagination for himself. This greatly increases his 
pleasure in such readings. And in just this is suggested a 
manner of reading fairy tales and others of this group. 
The reader may supplement the author's work by inventing 
some experience similar to that being read. Too little 
opportunity and encouragement are given in public schools 
to read constructively. Merely to receive impressions while 
reading is not to read much. The effective reader must 
react ; that is, he must take a positive attitude toward what 
he reads. In this type of imaginative story his reaction will 
be making, fanciful creations of his own. In reading 
" Jack and the Bean Stalk " it would clearly be inappropriate 
to consider the actual growth of a lima bean. But to supple- 
ment this story by a flight of fancy about Jack in the Pulpit, 
or Tam and the Pumpkin Seed would be quite in place. 

2. Travel, adventure, scenery. Here the more remote pur- 
pose of the reader may well be to acquire more sympathetic 
appreciation of peoples and their environments in other 
places. Most young people know too little of other peoples 
and places, and are too little concerned about them. This 
means that life is too much limited to self. This is unsocial. 
The community suffers thereby as well as the individual. 
A wider and more generous outlook is needed, for both 
present satisfaction and later development. Thus in stories 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 351 

of this type the young reader may advisably supplement 
his new acquaintance with " Martha in Holland " by com- 
paring certain dress customs or industrial activities of the 
Dutch with corresponding ones in other countries with 
which the reader may be acquainted. Thus the reading of 
literature in this group calls for reaction in the form of 
comparisons and evaluations. 

3. Nature. All children and adults are observers, more 
or less, of nature that is about them. The extent of such 
observing and the satisfaction in it are increased when the 
observer becomes better informed through instruction or 
through reading. The more remote purpose in reading 
nature stories is thus to supplement observations already 
made and inspire to more satisfactory contact with nature. 
The boy or girl who reads literature of this type has, in the 
course of his normal experience, become somewhat acquainted 
with the plant and animal world about him. On the basis 
of this experience, then, he would naturally react in reading 
what others have reported about nature. Thus in reading 
Short Stories of Our Shy Neighbors the pupil should be 
encouraged to report freely on similar readings or on his 
experience with the shy little animals he has observed. 

4, Industries, invention, science. Leisure reading in this 
group must be distinguished from the study of industrial 
activities. It is indeed quite probable that comparatively 
little reading of this type is done for leisure. A boy reads 
Stories of Useful Inventions for suggestions or guidance in a 
bit of his own constructive efforts. Such reading is thus 
probably work for him. His primary purpose is preparation 
for an undertaking, not the satisfactory occupation of leisure 
time. On the other hand, a boy may read Triumphs of 
Science primarily as leisure but with the more remote object 
of better understanding and appreciating the industrial 
activities taking place, though he is not directly engaged 



S52 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

in them. It has been pointed out ear Her that the socially 
efficient citizen is usually the one who is first of all somewhat 
acquainted with the productive activities of the immediate 
and the larger community. Such a youth or adult is usually 
more considerate of public needs and public service. In 
reading literature of this group thoughtful comparison is 
probably an effective means of improving the reading. And 
this is applicable whether the reading is in the group at 
school or as individuals at home. In directing reading of 
this sort in school or advising on the method of reading at 
home one precaution is needed : Care must be taken not to 
make the comparisons so studied that the young reader is 
put to work rather than enabled to enjoy his leisure by a 
more thought-reacting method of reading. 

5. History and biography. The treatment of history and 
biography is in most schools of the character of work. But 
there are some pupils and some parents who use historical 
material as leisure reading. More pupils would do so were 
not so much emphasis placed, in the public schools, upon 
historical sequence. Aside from the purpose common in all 
these types of readings for leisure time, the purpose in 
reading historical material seems to be to secure a certain 
satisfaction of a critical nature, or a certain intellectual 
pleasure in the knowledge of men and events in earlier times. 
There is probably much of the conventional in our attention 
to history. The feeling is widespread that education is 
scarcely possible without a knowledge of the Greeks and 
the Romans. Many people are more concerned about what 
others think of their knowledge of history than about any 
satisfaction an acquaintance with earlier times and peoples 
actually affords.^ It is this feeling of satisfaction that 
provides purpose in reading history in leisure time. But 

^ Compare Spencer's criticism of conventional education in his essay on 
"What Knowledge Is of Most Worth." 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 353 

when a boy reads Washington and His Generals his reaction 
is usually by way of comparisons with other generals and 
especially with army officials or movements of the present. 
Heroes Every Child Should Know is the more enjoyed if 
present-day heroes — even local heroes — with whom the 
reader may be acquainted are compared. History, as a 
record of events, has real significance to the leisure reader, 
as well as to the student at work, only as some reflection of 
a comparative nature is indulged in. 

6. Fiction — character study. Even children of elementary 
school age entertain many very thoughtful views of life. 
Children early in life judge the character and actions of others. 
They judge right and wrong. They discriminate between 
the good and the bad. Fiction that is suitable for boys and 
girls is more than a mere plot, a story with a beginning and 
ending. It is a study of character. Not all fiction is whole- 
some for children. But wholesome or not, fiction portrays 
life after much the same fashion as observed by boys and 
girls. Here again, in the normal lives of children is found 
a method of reading literature of the character-study type. 
It may well be expected, therefore, that in this kind of 
reading questions of worth, of ethical values, may be con- 
tinually raised, whether in the schoolroom group or as 
individuals at home. 

7. Humor. Too little time and attention is allowed in 
school for intellectual fun. The humorous is largely de- 
barred in the serious traditional school. But with approxi- 
mately one fourth of the school day scheduled for leisure 
through the story, some time could and should be given 
to humorous readings. As in the other types of reading 
there is here also a purpose more remote than immediate 
fun. Fun of the right sort brightens the disposition and also 
provides one with the means of giving to others later some 
of this same geniality and pleasantry. It would be quite 



354 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

out of place to have readings of this type regularly each 
day for some time, as with other types of reading. Irregular 
times determined by circumstances are preferable. And 
in this reading fun must be met by fun. Any form of analysis 
or study would be foreign to the nature of the material read. 
" ' Just for fun ' is the first reason for the humorous story ; 
the wisdom in the fun is the second." ^ 

Books chosen by pupils. In most elementary schools 
library facilities have been so limited that pupils have little 
opportunity to select their own books for reading. A large 
number of books should be within reach of pupils if their 
reading habits and their tastes for good reading are to be 
well developed. But pupils need guidance in the selection 
of their books. At the University Elementary School for 
the past six years the pupils have had a library of about 
twenty-five hundred volumes, with but few duplicates. 
This hbrary includes about six hundred books, unclassified 
but suitable for pupils within the first three grades; also 
books for the intermediate and upper grades, which are 
classified according to the seven types outlined above, 
although most of the books of industry, invention, and 
science are used for the study of industrial activity rather 
than for enjoyment of leisure time. In the selection of their 
books the pupils above the third grade have been directed 
to read at least one book each year from each of the first 
six types given above. The particular book is largely their 
own choice. Inasmuch as each pupil in Grades IV to VII 
in the past three years has read on an average twenty-one 
books each year, more than two thirds of the reading is 
wholly elective. It has been assumed, however, that the 
pupils are influenced in their selections by the class readings 
and the direction to read at least one book from each of the 
types. 

^ Bryant, S. C, How to Tell Stories to Children, page 20. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 355 

Table XVII and Table XVIII ^ record a portion of the 
books read at the University Elementary School during the 
three years 1914-1917.2 Table XVII includes the books 
read by ten or more pupils. In this list are 169 books. 
Table XVIII includes those books read by five, six, seven, 
eight, or nine pupils. In this list there are 155 books. 
Seven hundred five other books were read by only one, 
two, three, or four pupils.^ Table XVII may be read as 
follows : Adventures of a Brownie was read by one pupil 
in Grade II, eleven in Grade III, five in Grade IV, two 
in Grades V and VI, and two in Grade VII. This book 
is one of nine ranking the fifteenth in this list of 169 books. 
Table XVIII should be read likewise, but it must be noted 
that the rankings are in relation to the books listed in 
Table XVII. 

Two matters of interest are readily noticeable. First, 
there is a great range of books read. These two lists of 324 
books are increased by 705 other books not here reported. 
This is in marked contrast with the " reading " scheduled in 
the traditional school. One explanation for this wide range 
of reading seems to be that these pupils talk freely among 
themselves of the books they read. After hearing of a book 
in this way, pupils prefer to read a strictly new one. There 
is a real advantage in this : an individual pupil's own reading 
is not lessened, and he profits by the reading of others. 
Second, books are read by pupils of various grades. Com- 
paratively few books are limited to a range of two grades; 
many are read in five or even six different grades. Explana- 
tion for this is in the fact that this material for leisure reading 
is not organized on the basis of technical difficulties in reading. 
Emphasis is placed upon the enjoyment of the story. That 

^ See pages 468-478. 

^ In each of these years the school enrolled about one hundred pupils. 
^This means that 1029 different books were read during these three 
years. The school library at that time contained about 2000 volumes. 



356 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

this wide range in reading produces good readers, oral as 
well as silent, is not questioned by those who observe the 
work in progress. 

This wide range of leisure reading books read suggests 
the wisdom of avoiding the selection of particular books for 
particular grades. Pupils who read an average of twenty- 
five books in each of the first three grades ^ acquire an 
ability to read without difficulty any book of interest to 
them. Teachers who may select books from the two lists 
given are therefore advised to select in part at least books 
read more by pupils above or below the grade in question 
than by pupils in the given grade. For example, in selecting 
for the third grade. Booh of Nature Myths may be safely 
chosen. This book ranks eighth in the first list. This rank 
recommends the book, though it is read more by pupils in 
Grades IV and V than by pupils in Grades II and III. 

PLAN FOR CONDUCTING THE STORY HOUR 

Report of experience. The story hour presented in this 
chapter as a period of leisure is probably unique at the 
University Elementary School. The story is presented as 
one of the very best means of occupying leisure time. Read- 
ing materials should be quite extensive and readily available 
to the pupils; free selection under helpful guidance is im- 
portant. These are two of the more important conclusions 
from the experience of this school. A report on certain 
details of conducting this story hour may be suggestive. 

Learning to read excluded. The initial step in learning 
to read does not belong to the story hour. Pupils are here 
concerned with the enjoyment of stories, not with the 
mechanical process in learning how to read. In the tradi- 
tional school the " reading " class assumes the responsibility 

1 See Table IX, page 363. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 357 

of teaching pupils to read. No effort is usually made in 
language classes, or in arithmetic, history, etc., to teach pupils 
to read. How to read is the specific problem in the reading 
classes. And this is almost universally the case even in 
the use of texts in which the author clearly states in the 
preface, " The object is the story." But the position taken 
in this volume is that the formal subjects should be taught 
only as the subject matter of such subjects actually functions 
in other work of the pupils. Thus it may be expected that 
pupils will learn to read while engaged in the enjoyment of 
stories, but learning to read is not at all the purpose. Ability 
to read is only a by-product of enjoying the story .^ 

Time schedule. In the traditional school primary reading 
classes are quite generally scheduled to recite four times 
each day. This frequency, compared with that for other 
activities, is probably an indication of the relative importance 
assigned to the exercise in learning to read. But even with 
that frequency only about twenty-five or thirty per cent of 
the school day is given to reading. This means that with 
from one hour to one and one half hours each day each 
reading period continues only fifteen to twenty-five minutes. 
This is insufficient time for the enjoyment of stories. A 
period of one full hour is not too long a period for leisure 
with the story. A fourth of that time is fatiguing for the 
pupils in the traditional reading periods. It is probable 
that both teacher and pupils prefer a regular time for this 
leisure reading each day, though they should be at full 
liberty to change the hour at will. Some days the weather 
may call for another hour for the story ; sometimes the 
nature of other school activities makes a change advisable. 
At the University Elementary School the story hour is from 

1 It should be said that pupils in the University Elementary School learn 
to read as much or more in their studies of observation and play as at this 
leisure reading hour. 



358 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

1.30 to 2.30. This hour extends to 3 to include singing and 
the enjoyment of pictures. Little less than one fourth of the 
school day is devoted to the enjoyment of stories, singing, 
and pictures ; little less than one fifth to stories alone ; and 
this in one period. Moreover, it is approximately the same 
for all grades. Early in this chapter it was noted that in 
the traditional schools more than one fourth (30.6 per cent) 
of the time in the first grade is scheduled for reading. The 
amount of this time regularly decreases in each grade to the 
eighth, which is scheduled to have only 9.6 per cent. 

Silent and oral reading. Most of the reading in real life is 
in silence, not aloud. Reading is hy the public, not to the 
public. School men are taking this more and more into 
account and there is a positive tendency to give more atten- 
tion to helping pupils to become good silent readers than to 
developing them into good oral readers. This need not 
mean less class work of an oral character, but it does call 
for another type of class reading. The deaf are taught in 
silence, but at a great handicap. Teaching silent reading is 
best done through oral instruction, but emphasis must 
not be given to inflections, pauses, tone values, etc. Atten- 
tion must be centered upon the story itself. Indeed, this 
will probably result in better oral reading than the tradi- 
tional drill upon one selection. It must be said, however, 
that the silent reader acquires efficiency by reading silently. 
The large amount of reading by the pupils in the University 
Elementary School could not have been done orally. Most 
of it has been done silently.^ 

The circle and small groups. Silent reading requires no 
audience. Oral reading has no purpose without the audience. 
The arrangement of pupils in long rows in the traditional 
school robs the reader of his audience, or at least the audience 

^ Compare statistical studies by Kelly in Monroe's Educational Tests arid 
Measurements, pages 66-111. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 359 

is reduced to the teacher who usually stands in front, and 
the backs of the heads of the pupils in front of the pupil 
reading. This situation is sufficient to explain all the poor 
reading so generally found in the traditional reading classes. 
Without a real audience the pupil has no motive for good 
oral reading. The practice of some schools in having the 
reader come forward and face the school relieves the situa- 
tion, except for the textbook discussed in the next paragraph. 
In place of the rows of school desks, the chairs used by 
pupils may be arranged in circular form. But even with the 
traditional rows of seats pupils may be arranged in circular 
form sufficiently well to enable most of them to face other 
pupils. In this arrangement there is no occasion to rise 
when reading. Such standing is usually formal and arti- 
ficial. In this circular form each pupil is a participant as 
well as the one who reads : he is in a position to listen with 
his eyes as well as with his ears and can readily join discussion 
as the story presented offers opportunity. 

The class may be broken up into small groups from time 
to time and continue so for a few days. These small groups 
should be composed of those who are socially congenial. 
These groups may be scattered about the schoolroom or out 
in the halls or other places in the school building. The 
teacher cannot, of course, be with all groups at once; but 
she can act as supervisor and go about from group to group 
as she feels there is need. These small groups lessen the size 
of the audience, but increase the opportunity for oral reading 
and for discussion. The superficial observer will complain of 
lack of order, but he does not see the real reading taking place. 

The text and the library. When the class is reading from 
one text so that all are expected to be familiar with the story 
to be read, there can be no motive for the reader to read well, 
or for the others of the class to listen well. The text is wholly 
out of place for the enjoyment of the story ; it is a great 



360 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

handicap even in learning the mechanics of reading. In 
place of the text studied by the pupils before coming to class, 
two plans may be used : (1) One book may be passed about 
or used wholly by one pupil. In this case the reading would 
usually be " sight " work. But most of the reading above 
the first grade may well be " sight " work. (2) Each pupil 
may bring to the class the book which he is at that time 
reading. As opportunity offers the pupil may select a story 
or a portion of one which he has previously read and present 
this to the circle or the smaller group. His motive is to 
entertain the others with that in which he has found enter- 
tainment. Thus both reader and listener have good motives 
for the parts they play. The pupil need not read all his 
story or indeed consecutive parts. He may make selections 
and tell of parts omitted. It must not be expected that all 
that is read will be presented in class. This would be im- 
possible, as seen from the amounts of reading done by pupils 
reported at the close of this chapter. 

Procedure in the lower grades. The story hour may be 
spent wholly in silent reading or wholly in class work. In 
the lower grades it is best for most teachers to provide for 
both silent and oral reading within the hour. Care must 
be taken not to let the striking of the clock determine regu- 
larly when one must stop and the other begin. Variation 
according to circumstances is preferable. Silent reading 
in the lower grades is best conducted by having the pupils 
irregularly distributed in small groups, largely on the basis 
of congeniality but so far as convenient with one of the 
stronger pupils in each group. " Silent " reading with little 
people is often somewhat noisy. Objection must not be 
made to this. The children are active and their audible 
silent reading is effective. This method of reading calls for 
the telling of words by a stronger pupil or by the teacher. 
But when twenty, thirty, forty, or even fifty pupils are read- 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES S61 

ing in this way, it must be recognized that a great deal of 
reading is being done. 

When the " silent " reading is exchanged for the oral class 
work, the circle arrangement is preferable to the small group, 
though the small group system may be profitably used at 
times. When seated in the circle, the reader may be selected 
by the teacher, or suggested by one or more members of the 
class, or he may volunteer and gain the privilege of reading 
by insisting that he has a good story and can present it well. 
He may tell portions or read it all. Within the first two 
years of school seldom will a story be presented as " sight " 
work. The reader must present what he believes will 
entertain the others. Unfamiliar words must be told by the 
teacher or other pupil. Surely not all pupils will read to the 
class each day. A week or more may elapse before some 
pupils have the opportunity. But in the meantime they are 
reading much in silence. The reading of the story may often 
be interrupted by questions, comments, illustrations, and 
dramatization. But such interruptions are only means of 
better enjoying the story. 

Procedure in the upper grades. In the upper grades 
provision should be made for full hour periods of silent 
reading. And this should be strictly silent reading. Seated 
about the room, the library, or halls, the individual rather 
than the group can spend a pleasant and profitable hour. 
The dictionary as well as the stronger pupil or the teacher 
should aid in difiicult places. But the context itself is one 
of the best aids. It must be expected, too, that much more 
of this silent reading will be done at home than is done by 
pupils in the lower grades. Indeed, this leisure reading 
should be the chief " home work " for pupils. 

Oral reading in the class may well continue for the full hour 
subject to variation as suggested a few pages earlier. This 
oral reading may be selections from the silent reading already 



362 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

done. But it must be assumed that pupils in the fourth 
grade and above are able to read quite efficiently at sight 
such literature as is readily understood by them. The 
class work may, therefore, be material quite new to all. 
On page 348 seven types of readings were presented. Ex- 
perience has shown the advantage of using a book represent- 
ing one of these types for about two weeks, more or less, 
according to the time needed for the book chosen. This 
book is read in class but not by individuals outside of class. 
Wliile this book is being read in class each pupil reads out- 
side of class at least one other book of that type. He may 
read more, or choose from another type. During the 
reading in class, the pupils frequently interrupt with ques- 
tions or comments suggested by the reading of a similar 
book outside of class. In this way the story hour is pri- 
marily for the immediate enjoyment of the pupils, but pupils 
also require an acquaintance with methods of reading liter- 
ature of that type. Class work has thus a very direct effect 
upon reading outside of class. 

Spare time. Leisure reading is not limited to the story 
hour. Pupils are free to go to the library when they wish. 
They do find leisure time at irregular intervals. Their other 
work is never fully completed but frequently there are 
intervals when it is better to read leisurely than to begin 
a new piece of work. 

Book reports. It is not important that a close account 
be kept of all the work of pupils, nor should they be examined 
to ascertain how carefully they read in their leisure time. 
Book reports are kept at the University Elementary School 
as a record of the reading done. In the first two grades the 
pupil draws a picture to represent some portion of the story, 
or book, read. In Grades III and IV a drawing is supple- 
mented by very short statements written beneath the drawing 
or on a separate page. In the grades above the fourth a 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 



363 



paragraph or a page is written. This practice may be 
questioned as an infringement upon leisure time for which 
this reading is intended. 



RESULTS 

Amount of reading. It is impossible to secure a record 
of all the reading done by pupils. They read much at home 
and some at school which cannot be recorded. Report is 
here made of the reading at the University Elementary 
School for the three years from September 15, 1914, to 
June 1, 1917, but with no account of reading done during 
the summer sessions of this school, nor much of reading done 
by many pupils at home. This report includes only books 
taken from the school library and definitely recorded. 
Table IX shows the extent of this reading. The amount of 
readings is here expressed in book units. This is, of course, 
not very definite. Books vary in size. But this unit is 
sufficiently definite for the present purpose. By referring 
to books listed in Tables XVII and XVIII ^ a somewhat more 
definite notion may be had of the amount of this reading. 

TABLE IX 

Showing Minimtjm, Median, and Maximum Number of Books Read bt 
Pupils in Three Years, 1914-1917 



Grades 


1914-1915 


1915-1916 


1916-1917 


Min. 


Med. 


Max. 


Min. 


Med. 


Max. 


Min. 


Med. 


Max. 


I . . . 

II . . 

III . . 

IV . . 
V, VI . 
VII . . 


5 
8 
7 
7 
9 
13 


11 

17 
16 
12 
15 
18 


18 
27 
40 
46 
24 
32 


6 

18 

13 

5 

7 

11 


14 
30 
26 
13 
15 
16 


24 
39 
56 
40 
33 
32 


8 
16 

28 
23 

7 
8 


16 
33 
54 
43 
20 
18 


45 
39 
62 
67 
41 
50 



1 See pages 468-478. 



364 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

It will be readily understood that books used by pupils in 
Grade I are small and the type large. In the upper grades 
the books are larger and the type smaller. Thus no com- 
parison between the grades should be made. It may be of 
interest to compare the amounts given here with reading 
done in corresponding grades in the traditional school. 
It should be stated here that pupils in Grade I at the Uni- 
versity Elementary School do not begin to read in books 
until December or January. Further, the amount of 
reading here recorded is exclusive of the great amount of 
reading done especially in connection with studies in observa- 
tion. In the first grade two hundred books are called for by 
these outlines.^ In the one topic of Transportation studied 
in Grades V and VI one hundred ten books are used.^ 
Thus the amount of reading reported in Table IX represents 
only those books drawn from the school library for leisure 
reading, usually one hour each day in school — though 
much of this hour is occupied in class reading — and such 
home reading as is done, more than two thirds of which is 
strictly voluntary. 

Immediate pleasure. It is impossible to ascertain at all 
accurately how much pleasure pupils have in this leisure 
reading. The amount of reading, however, is significant, 
as a large part of this reading is voluntary. The book 
reports, too, in which the upper grade pupils record whether 
or not they like the book, show the pupils' fondness for this 
reading. This immediate pleasure must be the chief result 
of this leisure reading. 

By-products. This extensive reading cannot but bring 
to the pupils many valuable results in addition to pleasure. 
Pupils do learn to read. They become acquainted with 
letters, sounds, and various combinations, which are not 
so much needed in reading as later in composition. Pupils 
1 See Appendix B. * See Appendix C. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — STORIES 365 

do learn to read aloud with excellent expression, though 
silent reading for the story itself is the chief object. They 
become good listeners, for when a story is read, only by 
listening can it be enjoyed. Such extensive reading provides, 
quite incidentally, a wealth of information which renders 
much service later. Moreover, so much reading of creditable 

— even excellent — literature develops in the pupils a habit 
of reading and a taste for good reading. 

Supplementary Readings 

Arnold, Sarah L. Reading, How to Teach It. 

BoBBiTT, J. F. " Literature in the Elementary Curriculum." Elementary 
School Journal, Vol. 14, pages 158-166. 

What the Schools Teach and Might Teach, pages 21-34. 

BoLENius, Emma. Teaching Literature in the Grammar Grades and High 

School. — 
Briggs, T. H., and Coffman, L. D. Reading in Public Schools. 
Bryant, Sara. How to Tell Stories to Children. 
Carlton, W. N. C, Judd, C. H., and Roden, C. R. Children's Reading 

and Libraries ; see The Child in the City, pages 373-397. 
Carpenter, G. R., Baker, F. T., and Scott, F. N. The Teaching of 

English in the Elementary and the Secondary School, pages 67-121, 155- 

187, 250-282. 
Charters, W. W. Teaching the Common Branches, pages 104-145. 
Chubb, P. The Teaching of English, pages 1-88, 117-172, 235-315. 
Colby, J. R. Literature and Life in School. 

Courtis, S. A. Standards in Rates of Reading, -pages 4ii-58. See the Four- 
teenth Year Book of the National Society for the Study of Education. 
Cox, J. H. Literature in the Common Schools. 

Freeman, F. N. The Psychology of the Common Branches, pages 67-97. 
Haliburton, Margaret, and Smith, Agnes. Teaching Poetry in the 

Grades. 
HuEY, E. B. The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. 
Jenkins, Frances. Reading in the Primary Grades. 
Kendall, C. N., and Mirick, G. A. How to Teach the Fundamental Sub- 

jects, pages 8-60. 
Monroe, W. S., DeVoss, J. C, and Kelly, F. J. Educational Tests 

and Measurements, pages 66-111. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Sixteen 

Handwork is proposed as one of foxir subjects in the elementary 

school curriculum. 
Various purposes are assigned to handwork in the school. 
Handwork provides general training. 
Handwork makes school work more attractive. 
Handwork contributes to a practical education. 
Handwork is a handmaid in methods of teaching. 
Handwork as normal experience is recommended in this volume. 
Handwork projects are objective problems of practical significance 
to the pupils. 

The basis for the selection of projects is found in the construc- 
tive activities in which children normally engage. 
Organization of projects is unimportant. 
Pupils are as interested in handwork for school purposes as 

in projects for themselves. 
Lists of handwork projects are needed as suggestions. 
The method of conducting handwork must be educational. 
Schools provide too little time for handwork. 
More attention should be given to working out designs and 

specifications. 
Much discussion of materials, construction, etc., is needed. 
Exhibit of all projects made is instructive. 

Material and apparatus used should be good but need not be 
expensive. 
Handwork in school should contribute much to occupation at home. 



CHAPTER SIXTEEN 

School Studies — Handwork ^ 

VARIOUS PURPOSES FOR HANDWORK 

As general training. Inasmuch as general training is the 
justification for so much of the work in the traditional curric- 
ulum, it is not at all surprising that handwork should have 
claim to a place upon the same basis. Even as far back as 
1872 the Swedish government reached the conclusion that 
" schools for instruction in Sloyd were necessary to restore 
the waning physical and moral health of the nation, . . ." 
Early discussions ^ of manual training in this country em- 
phasized general discipline as its chief value. Work with 
tools and materials developed the powers of observation, 
trained the pupils to reason, and strengthened their wills. 
Sixteen years later this same notion was still prominent. 
"... the quickening of the creative instinct, the inculca- 
tion of a respect for labor, the formation of habits of neatness, 
order, directness, and exactness and the induction of the 
logical and rational thinking ..." ^are given as purposes for 
manual training. In his inspection of the schools of New 
York City in 1912, Professor McMurry found the handwork 
in the grades so uniform for all districts that he was obliged 
to judge the work conducted for " disciplinary aim and tech- 
nical sequence." This purpose for handwork in many schools 
even today permits much formal exercise in making things.^ 

^ This school study is given only a very limited treatment here. The 
work has as yet received comparatively little attention and study in the 
University Elementary School. Since the relation of this handwork to the 
curriculum is probably somewhat different from that presented in most 
public schools, a brief statement will be given. 

^ See Reports of National Education Association, 1888. 

3 Leavitt, F. M. (Reference has been lost, but Mr. Leavitt accepts this 
statement as an expression of his view fifteen or twenty years ago.) 

^Compare the various "values" assigned by Row in The Educational 
Meaning of Manual Arts and Industries. 

367 



368 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

As an attractive element. Handwork appeals strongly to 
most pupils. This does not mean that all girls are inter- 
ested in a certain kind of sewing and all boys interested in a 
certain kind of bench work. The constructive instinct is 
strong in most children. Through this interest an appeal 
is made to children to take hold of the common school 
subjects. In many schools manual training and various 
forms of handwork are given a place in the curriculum not 
by reason of any intrinsic value but for the purpose of 
attracting children and leading them to tolerate the regular 
work for the sake of work which they enjoy. In discussing 
" needed changes in manual arts," ^ a professor of manual 
arts advocates the use of manual training to interest pupils 
and keep them in school. To use manual arts in any such 
way casts a reflection on the other school work to which 
manual arts is intended to attract children and, secondly it 
misuses the more valuable activity as a means of securing 
one of less value. This purpose probably will pass soon, 
precisely as other devices have lost their places. 

As a practical education. Manual arts as a part of the 
present-day curriculum is credited with providing practical 
education. Since objectivity is a phase of this subject it is 
regarded by some as a better means of developing earning 
capacity than other school subjects. General handwork 
in the public schools is credited as excellent preparation for 
vocational training later. Further, credit is given handwork 
on the ground that through it the child gains an insight into 
industrial processes in which so much of life is centered later. 

The practical aspects of school work are destined to be 
given more and more prominence in our schools, but there 
is serious danger of expecting too much of this practical 
outcome from manual arts. Time possible for this work is 
too limited to develop much ability in pupils ; indeed pupils 
^ National Education Association, 1912, pages 932-941. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — HANDWORK 369 

in the elementary schools are too young to acquire much 
practical ability. There is also the danger that, in schools 
where the practical is an aim, handwork will be of the ap- 
prenticeship type, rather than truly educational. Hand- 
work as a practical education is probably interpreted in 
terms of the adults' standard rather than in terms of the 
children's appreciation of it. 

As a method. Two aspects of handwork used as a method 
may be noted : one is a means of expression used by the 
pupil ; the other is a method of teaching employed by the 
instructor. It does seem in keeping with a child's nature 
and his ability if he expresses his idea of multiplication by 
an arrangement of blocks or by the cutting of paper squares ; 
some geographical concepts by means of constructions in 
the sand table. It is true that many children do tend to 
express themselves objectively. Would not an analysis of 
the situation reveal as truth that such pupils have not yet 
sufficient control of language to express their idea.? A 
further truth may appear also : the pupils are more concerned 
in the activity required in the construction than interested 
in giving expression to an idea through such construction. 

Teachers employ handwork construction as a method of 
teaching. Some ideas are made clearer by being expressed 
in some such form. For example, the relation of sun, earth, 
and moon may be made clearer by a construction of rubber 
balls and hatpins. This illustrative method of teaching is 
usually employed when the topic to be taught is not normal 
and suitable for the pupils. 

There are two serious dangers in the use of handwork as 
a method. One is that it will be used where there is no 
real need for it. For example, pupils in the traditional 
school are studying arithmetic. To " motivate " this, 
aspects of the grocery store are studied. A further step is 
taken by constructing in the schoolroom a miniature store. 



370 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

This is made of a dry-goods box. Shelves are provided and 
empty cans, bottles, pasteboard boxes, etc., are placed on 
these shelves. The completed structure has some resem- 
blance to the downtown grocery, but such handwork con- 
struction is not at all needed. No idea is added to what the 
pupils already had by constructing it. The grocery store 
itself would serve much better in making clear any in- 
definiteness. It is probable that motivation of the arith- 
metic through the grocery store is used as an opportunity 
for resorting to a bit of handwork activity, almost uni- 
versally attractive to children.^ 

A second danger is that handwork will be devised that will 
lead far beyond what was intended, due to the suggestive- 
ness of the handwork. " A child wants to make a picture 
book. In making it he must measure and he must divide; 
he should also increase his practical vocabulary ; in addition 
to these he may learn something of the early history of books 
and of the source of paper and strawboard and cloth and 
paste ; he may then collect pictures and learn something of 
the lives of the men who painted them, and the thoughts 
and feelings they desired to express through them. Thus 
the manual arts serve as a method or means of teaching 
other subjects and so contribute an element of value in the 
educative process." ^ Just such an omnibus is frequently 
made of manual arts. " The play house," which was so 
enthusiastically placed in the schools twenty years or more 
ago and which is not yet wholly extinct, enabled the ingenious 
teacher to put into it almost anything she wished. From 
that handwork exercise there were tangents to other topics 
almost wholly unrelated to the house that the hands had 
made. 

^ Compare suggestions in Charters, W. W., Teaching the Common 
Branches, pages 212-213. 

2 Bennett, C. A., "The Place of Manual Arts in Education." Educational 
Review, Vol. 42, page 248. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — HANDWORK 371 

Such are the dangers for those who would use handwork 
as a method. Handwork should not be reduced to the 
position of serving as a handmaid to the other subjects. 

As normal experience. Consistent with the purpose of 
elementary education — to help hoys and girls do better 
in all those wholesome activities in which they normally 
engage — handwork may be assigned an important place 
in the curriculum because it is a wholesome activity in which 
most children normally engage. This is a sufficient justi- 
fication. The other purposes, so far as they are used, must 
be strictly subordinate to this one. School work will be 
more attractive to children by the introduction of manual 
arts, as it always is when their normal activities are the 
subjects for study ; if handwork may be suggestive as to 
method it should be introduced into the curriculum chiefly 
as a good example of effective laboratory study. 

The difference between handwork pursued in school as a 
normal experience of pupils and that generally motivating 
school topics closely resembles the difference between the 
natural life of children out of school and the formality of 
their life activities in school. We need to beware of the 
feeling of obligation to make a place for handwork in school : 
for the purpose of interesting pupils, supplying means of 
expression, or illustrating subjects that may be difficult. 
Handwork has by its own nature a place In that curriculum 
which is based upon the natural activities of people outside 
of school. 

HANDWORK PROJECTS 

Basis of selection. Quite consistent with the " studied " 
purposes so generally expressed as justification for handwork 
in the curriculum are the very fundamental principles 
evolved by those who make out courses of study in handwork. 
Representative of such efforts is the following : "... there 



372 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

are certain interests and activities that are more or less 
common in all communities. These will constitute a basis 
for a general suggestive outline which may be filled in and 
supplemented as necessary or desirable for local conditions. 
First, there are certain lines of early racial industrial activi- 
ties that have historical as well as manual art values, and 
that appeal to the combined play and constructive impulses 
of children. In their proper time and place, and within 
common-sense limitations, these have educational value for 
all children, and hence should find a place in the course of 
study. For example, the making of simple textiles and 
pottery were among the early efforts of the man to utilize 
the materials of his environment. Rushes and coarse 
grasses were everywhere available for the simple mats, and 
clay could always be found for making the 'coiled' bowls 
or pots. In either of these processes no tools were needed. 
They were genuine hand-made articles." 

That guiding principle leads to the selection of the follow- 
ing projects among others listed : 

For first grade : 

" 2. If there is a period devoted to the study of a primitive people, for 
example, the North American Indian, there should be a similar correla- 
tion, such as : 

(a) The representation of an Indian home, or better, a small vil- 
lage, on the sand table. 
(6) Construction of wigwams. 

(c) Making canoes of bark, or cardboard. 

(d) Placing evergreen twigs to represent forest. 

(e) Modeling in clay the figures of Indian men, women, and chil- 

dren engaged in typical occupations. Modeling, also, some 
wild animals. 
(/) Making spears, tomahawks, bows and arrows, hunting knives 
of stone, a stone corn mill, etc. 

3. Representation of some typical industry, such as the production of 
bread. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — HANDWORK 373 

(a) Making primitive spades, or a plow, and harrow. 

(b) A wooden reaping sickle, or a scythe. 

(c) A flail. 

(d) A sieve. 

(e) A mortar or stone mill. 
(/) A baking stone." 

For second grade : 

" 1. The historical work should center about the life in the pastoral and 
early agricultural periods, somewhat as follows : 

(o) The story of how men came to domesticate animals. Why 
sheep and goats were among the first domesticated. 

(b) Examination of part or the whole of a fleece. 

(c) Experiments in primitive processes of washing, combing, 

dyeing, and spinning wool. 

(d) Designing and weaving a blanket for a doll's bed. 

(e) Children construct their own simple wooden hand looms." 

For third grade : 

" On the historical side, projects may center about the beginning of com- 
merce and transportation. 

1. The pupils convert a large box into a store, put in a counter and a 
few shelves and samples of staple goods, or boxes labeled to represent the 
goods. They construct balances to weigh articles, and rules with which to 
measure." ^ 

Further citations are unnecessary to show how these 
" studied " uses for manual arts lead far beyond handwork 
itself. In this case much history is included, which is 
questionable subject matter for teacher and pupils of these 
lower grades. In all similar cases handwork becomes too 
involved; it is made quite other than the normal activity 
of children; it includes studies in which the adult sees 
possibilities for correlation. 

Quite in contrast to such a basis for selecting handwork 
projects, the normal needs, interests, and abilities of pupils 

^ These quotations are from R. K. Row, The Educational Meaning of 
Manual Arts and Industries, pages 216-220. 



374 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

greatly simplify the problem and make the work more 
effective. This basis, of course, means that the projects 
are not selected in relation to other subjects, as illustrative 
means, nor upon the principle of making simple things in 
imitation of simple primitive life. The basis for selection 
of handwork projects is best found in those wholesome 
constructive activities in which children normally engage. 
These projects cannot be mapped out in a definite course 
but must depend upon circumstances. 

Organization of projects. The little organization possible 
at first appears to be a real weakness. In reality it is 
a source of strength. Accept the notion that pupils have in 
mind (or would readily have with a little help) many things 
they would like to make to meet certain needs or mere 
wishes, and believe that the school is under obligation to 
help these little people do better in these wholesome activi- 
ties ; then close organization of their projects is undesirable, 
but some arrangement for work is imperative. 

An arrangement is here suggested. In the outlines for 
Grades I and II, in the following chapter, it will be seen 
that handwork is organized in terms of the materials used. 
For example : yarns for weaving in one month ; cross-stitch 
canvas in another; denim, canvas, linen, in another, etc. 
The basis for this organization is largely that of convenience 
for the teacher and her pupils. She can more easily provide 
materials of one kind. The children's own interests are 
not sacrificed. They are glad to be thus guided. Among 
the older pupils the organization is largely determined by 
school management in conjunction with pupils' interests. 
Such groups as the following may be made : cord, yarn, rags ; 
paper, cardboard; reed, raffia, tissue-paper rope; food; 
wood ; textiles ; metal. 

In this work it is not at all important that pupils be 
grouped according to the usual grades. Fourth-grade girls 



SCHOOL STUDIES — HANDWORK 375 

may work with the same materials used by pupils in the 
seventh grade. A similar statement may be made of the 
boys in their work. It seems that these different forms of 
handwork should not be wholly elective, and that most 
pupils should in the course of a year or two have taken some 
handwork in each of these groups. Much individual at- 
tention is necessitated by arrangement on this basis. Proj- 
ects are individual, except in special work. In any such 
group some pupils will be farther advanced than others and 
will do different work, though with the same kind of ma- 
terials. This organization means, further, that these groups 
will change from time to time, — boys need not work at the 
bench the whole year nor need girls do so with their needles. 
Such a change might take place at intervals of from four to 
six weeks. 

Pupil selections and school needs. Pursuant to the 
demand for provision for individual differences,^ pupils must 
be given opportunity to choose something of what they are 
to make. However, unlimited choice would make helpful 
school work practically impossible. Organization of the 
work about the material to be used is a limitation, but ample 
opportunity for individual choice remains. Pupils of the 
first and second grades can make a variety of projects of 
varied designs from cross-stitch canvas. These children 
should be encouraged to select their own designs, for they 
are too young to make original designs, or modifications of 
other designs. In the upper grades much individual plan- 
ning should be encouraged. 

The pupil's selection of his design or project develops an 
individual interest. More than this there is opportunity 
in most schools for cooperative handwork which is of real 
social concern. Pupils should not always make things for 
themselves. The school has its claims. Boys working in 
^ See Chapter Ten. 



376 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

wood or metal find interest in making things for the class- 
rooms, hallways, playgrounds, and offices. They take 
pride in doing such work. Girls working in basketry, card- 
board work, decorative work, or textiles may contribute 
something useful and ornamental to the building. Manual 
arts students should not be asked to make things or do re- 
pairing primarily as a means of saving expense to the ad- 
ministration. To make things in response to school needs 
may be approved only so far as the work is both congenial 
and developmental. In this cooperative work for school- 
room purposes there is much that is of great social profit 
to the pupils in the immediate present and also as prepara- 
tion for later usefulness. 

Suggestions for projects. It is comparatively easy to 
map out a course in manual arts, for certain grades, where 
the emphasis is upon a course to be followed by all the class. 
On the basis of the discussion above such a plan of work 
would not be approved. If we leave to the pupils the selec- 
tion of what they need or want that may be made of wood, 
metal, linen, yarn, etc., they will usually find difficulty in 
thinking of anything they wish to make. Teachers also 
are apt to be unprepared with suggestions. To meet this 
situation it is helpful to keep lists of things that may be 
made. These lists can be cumulative : as pupils get sug- 
gestions of things they might make, record should be made. 
Many lists of handwork projects are given in treatises on 
handwork, manual arts magazines, and other current peri- 
odicals. Even advertisements offer suggestions along this 
line. Clippings may be collected from these papers and 
periodicals, and if filed in accessible order they become very 
helpful. This policy of being constantly on the lookout for 
useful things to make provides for better education than 
making projects which have been definitely prescribed in a 
course of study. 



SCHOOL STUDIES — HANDWORK 377 

Merely to suggest the type of projects that may be made 
a very few are here listed according to the groups given 
above, on the basis of materials used : 

Cord, yarn, rags : Bags, mats, rugs, holders, hammocks, 
tatting edging, stocking caps, sailor's knots. 

Paper, cardboard : Boxes, poster work, lamp shade, book- 
marks, portfolio covers, blotter pad, reminder pad. 

Reed, raffia, tissue-paper rope : Baskets, mats, jardinieres, 
bird nests, hats. 

Textiles : Table runners, whisk brooms, holders, slipper 
cases, needlebooks, doilies, bookmarks, napkin rings, laundry 
bags, cushion covers, magazine covers, silver case, wall 
pockets, articles of clothing, bibs. 

Wood : Boxes, spool rack, necktie holder, footstool, fox 
and geese board, bread board, boats, water wheel, weather 
vane, bookrack. 

Metal : Pin tray, paper knife, bookmark, blotter pad, 
lamp shade, paper weight, watch fob. 

METHOD OF CONDUCTING HANDWORK 

Schedule. Schools provide too little time for handwork 
in consideration of its value relative to other school subjects. 
Some industrial schools divide the day about equally be- 
tween manual arts activities and the common branches, 
but in these schools the enrollment is largely of pupils who 
are misfits in the conventional school. The pupils are con- 
sidered as having manual rather than intellectual endow- 
ments. Half the day is probably an undue share for manual 
arts in most schools. However, an hour or an hour and a 
half each day should be scheduled for handwork. The last 
hour of the school day is a favorable time for such work. 

Designs and specifications. Handwork is advised for 
the purpose of the projects and as a normal activity for 
pupils. The quality of work must be carefully considered 



S78 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

both for the value of the project when completed and also 
for the by-product in training. To make a box so that it 
wUl hold a boy's marbles may be sufficient to meet a narrowly 
utilitarian purpose. It is equally important that the box 
be shapely, well finished, and pleasing. To this end hand- 
work in schools should not be conducted without consider- 
able study of design and specifications. 

There is, to be sure, some danger that emphasis will be 
placed on the intellectual side of handwork to such an extent 
that most pupils would find no more satisfaction in hand- 
work than in the formal exercises in grammar and arith- 
metic. But that danger is slight compared with the danger 
of treating handwork construction as though it were only 
for the hands. There is great danger that we may allow 
crude work to be done with the excuse that the project will 
serve its purpose and that the pupil is not appreciative of a 
more finished product. Artistic design and accurate speci- 
fications for the work should precede all constructions. 
Care must be taken not to use this handwork as an oppor- 
tunity for arithmetic and drawing — mere artificial corre- 
lation — but any calculations needed should be done 
accurately and the drawings made with great care. The 
constructions should be studied continually with respect 
to possible improvement in design. Head work of this sort 
is an important accompaniment to the handwork. Indeed, 
it cannot be divorced from it without seriously lowering the 
standards of the workmanship and also of the school. 

Discussion and work. Another means of improving the 
handwork itseK and justifying a more prominent place in 
the curriculum for this subject is to be found in discussion 
of the work. Handwork should not be mere shop work. 
It is bound to become mechanical, superficial, and non- 
educational if considerable study is not given to it. Dis- 
cussion with classmates is one of the best means of study in 



SCHOOL STUDIES — HANDWORK 379 

such work. This discussion should center largely upon 
purpose, structure, materials, and artistic finish. Origi- 
nality and ingenuity are desirable qualities in those who 
engage in manual arts. These qualities are acquired, not 
by independence, but through exchange of ideas. Such 
discussion is helpful through all the grades of the school. 

Exhibit of projects. All work done in a school should 
be exhibited. The practice of exhibiting only the best 
pieces cannot be approved. An exhibit of this work es- 
pecially arranged for visitors, when usually only the best 
is shown, has not the salutary effect upon the pupils that a 
continuous exhibit of the work of all pupils has. This 
exhibit should be in hallways or in assembly rooms where 
all pupils are frequently passing and will profit by observ- 
ing the wide range of work done throughout the school. 
This exhibit should be continuous; old work should be 
replaced as rapidly as new material is finished. 

Material and apparatus. There is danger of providing 
too bountiful equipment or of making too limited provision 
for handwork. Valuable work of this nature can be con- 
ducted at very little expense. Ingenuity is a better asset 
than funds. Consistent with the principle running throughout 
this volume, that school activities shall be an improvement 
upon the normal activities out of school, handwork should 
be of materials that in large part are saved from waste at 
home. New lumber is much better to work with than old, 
but at home where a boy has a few tools and something to 
serve as a bench, old pieces of lumber are made use of be- 
cause they are available while funds for new material are 
not. It is important that the schools teach pupils to use 
such material and apparatus as they may have at home. 
However, new lumber, new textiles, new cord, and new 
yarn should be used also. Pupils should be taught to make 
use of suitable materials at home when such may be had. 



380 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

RELATION TO HOME LIFE 

Boys and girls waste a great deal of time at home because 
they do not know what to do. In the preceding chapter 
the story was presented as a means of spending leisure. 
It is not the only means. Playing games and other play ac- 
tivities discussed in Chapter Fourteen serve a similar purpose. 
Handwork may also be so used at times, while whatever is 
made is of secondary value. Usually, however, things are 
made for the service they render. With proper training 
and even meager equipment boys and girls at home would 
have less leisure time because they would be busy in con- 
structive work, or leisure time would be less wasteful by 
reason of handwork that would be done. Every boy should 
have some sort of shop at home, which may be equipped 
very meagerly at first ; it will be better equipped when its 
value is discovered. The girl does not call for a special 
space called a shop ; the whole house is hers. Knowledge, 
direction, and encouragement to make things useful or 
artistic, or both, are needed ; there is scarcely a home which 
does not need this constructive work on the part of the 
children. To instruct children in handwork, not as a school 
exercise, but as an occupation that should have a larger 
place in the home, is the opportunity and the obligation of 
schools. 

Supplementary Readings 

Bennett, C. A. "The Place of Manual Arts in Education." Educational 
Review, Vol. 42, pages 245-253. 

BoNSER, F. G. "Industrial Education." Teachers College Record, Vol. 12, 
No. 4, pages 25-43. 

Chartebs, W. W. Teaching the Common Branches, pages 185-215. 

Crawshaw, F. D. Needed Changes in Manual Arts. National Educa- 
tion Association, 1912, pages 932-942. 

Dewey, J. School and Society, pages 131-137. 

DoBBS, Ella. Primary Handwork, 



SCHOOL STUDIES — HANDWORK 381 

Kern, 0. J. Among Country Schools, pages 309-341. 

Kehschensteiner, G. "The School of the Future, a School of Manual 

Arts." School and Home Education, Vol. 31, pages 278-286. 
Leavitt, F. M. Examples of Industrial Education, pages 9-18. 
" The Place of Technique in Elementary Manual Training." Elementary 

School Journal, Vol. 5, pages 72-76, 1904. 
McMuRRT, F. M. Interim Report, Committee on School Inquiry, City qf 

New York. 1911-1912, pages 88-92. 
Row, R. K. The Educational Meaning of Manual Arts and Industries. 
Sargent, W. Fine and Industrial Arts in Elementary Schools. 
Snedden, D. "Practical Arts." Educational Review, Vol. 43, pages 378- 

386, 1912. 



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

Representative Outlines 

BRIEF OUTLINE OF ENTIRE CURRICULUM 

The curriculum which has been discussed in previous 
chapters has been outhned in great detail on the basis of 
several years' use in the University Elementary School and 
after modification by many criticisms given by visiting 
teachers and those who have adapted portions of this work 
in their own schools. Space allows the presentation here 
of only a few representative outlines selected from the work 
of various grades.^ 

For the purpose of helping the reader to understand these 
outline studies, he is here reminded of three things : 

1. The purpose of elementary education. The purpose 
throughout this curriculum is : To help boys and girls do better 
in all those wholsome activities in which they normally engage.^ 

2. Principles that guide in the selection of the subject 
matter.^ (1) The curriculum should provide for meeting 
the immediate needs of the pupils primarily ; only secondarily 
should it provide for the preparation of pupils for later needs. 

(2) The curriculum should be expressed in terms of con- 
crete everyday activities of pupils and adults rather than in 
terms of generalization such as found in traditional subjects. 

(3) The curriculum should provide for great individual 
differences in order to meet varying tastes and abilities of 
the pupils. 

(4) The curriculum should be so organized that the various 
topics may easily be interchanged not only within any grade 
during the year, but from grade to grade. 

1 Plans have been made to publish in book form soon the outlines for all 
the grades. 

^ This was presented in Chapter One. 

' These principles were presented in Chapters Eight to Twelve. 

382 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 38S 

(5) The curriculum should provide for an acquaintance 
with both work and leisure. 

3. General outline of the curriculum. Four " subjects " are 
used throughout the school : ^ (1) Observation : In Grades I 
and II, plant life, animal life, people, earth, and sky. In 
Grades III and IV, local industries and activities. In 
Grades V and VI, world-wide activities and industries. 
In Grades VII and VIII, occupations — vocational intelli- 
gence. Z"^" 

(2) Play: In Grades I, II, and III, a great variety of 
games. In Grades IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII, play with 
nature, electricity, machinery, water, air, etc. All grades : 
Physical exercises, folk dancing, and free play. 

(3) Stories : Reading, telling, dramatizing ; singing songs ; 
studying pictures and drawings ; assembly exercises ; foreign 
language. 

(4) Handwork : A great variety of useful and ornamental 
articles are made. Only a very few projects are suggested 
in these outlines. Materials : Paper, cord, yarn, textiles, 
reed, raflfia, wood, metal. 

Grades I and II. The curriculum for Grades I and II is 
arranged by months. However, this organization is deter- 
mined only in part by the seasons. As is readily understood, 
much of this work could be shifted to other times of the year, 
in accordance with Principle Four discussed in Chapter 
Eleven. Some work is provided in each of the four phases of 
observation in each month ; the figures at the right of names of 
games refer to various modifications of the game as described 
in a manual of school games in preparation.^ It should be 
said, however, that the games included in these outlines are 
only a small portion of those being prepared. Some of the 
folk dances ^ and songs ^ used are given in the Appendix. 

^ These four subjects were presented in Chapters Thirteen to Sixteen. 
* See Appendix F. ' See Appendix E. * See Appendix D. 



384 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



The time schedule at the left provides four long periods 
each day and allows the individual teacher much freedom. 
Only two representative outlines of observation are given 
in this chapter : the wind (earth and sky) and helping others 
(people) . Suggestions on play (pages 396-397) , with Appendix 
F, are helpful as to the conduct of games (see also Chapter 
Fourteen). 

First Gbade — September 



Observation . . Plant life .... Sunflower, morning glory 
9.00 to 10.30 Animal life . . . . The spider, the fly 
Earth and sky . . Water 

People What we did before coming to 

school 
Playthings we have at home 
Play .... Relay contests . . Bean bags, 1, 2 
10.30 to 12.00 Cylinders, 1, 2 

Individual contests . Ball, 1 

Bean bags, 1 
Roly-poly, 1 
Singing games . . The mulberry bush 
Outdoor games . . Come with me 

Drop the handkerchief 
Fox and hen 
Frog in the meadow 
Folk dances . . . (See Appendix E) 
Free play .... Recess 
Stories . . . Literature .... Dramatizing 
1.30 to 3.00 Illustrating 

Listening to stories 
Telling stories 

Songs (See Appendix D) 

Pictures .... (See suggestions on stories) 
Handwork . . Jute, rags .... Square mats and holders 
3.00 to 4.00 Doll rugs, various 

Yam Spool knitting in the making of 

reins, jumping rope, mats 
Construction paper . Doll furniture, clothes, costumes 
Circus, merry-go-round 
Animals colored to nature 

Clay Animals, pets 

Paper weights, pin trays 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 



385 





First Grade - 


— October 


Observation . . 


Plant life . . . . 


Maple tree and leaf 


9.00 to 10.30 




Chestnut and walnut 
Cat-tail, zinnia 
Grapes, pumpkin 




Animal life .... 


Butterfly, caterpillar, cocoon 




Earth and sky . . 


Dew, vapor 




People 


What people do at home 
Halloween 


Play .... 


Relay contests . . 


Bean bags, 1, 2, 3, 4 


10.30 to 12.00 




Cylinders, 1, 2, 3 




IndividuaPcontests . 


Ball, 1 
Tenpins, 1 




Largely physical . . 


Have you seen my sheep ? 
Spin the plate 




Singing game . . . 


Jolly is the miller 




Outdoors .... 


Black man 

Cat and mouse 

Chickamy, chickimy, crany, crow 

Wood tag 




Folk dances . . . 


(See Appendix E) 




Free play 


Recess 


Stones . . . 


Literature .... 


Listening to stories 


1.30 to 3.00 




Dramatizing stories 
Illustrating stories 
Telling stories 




Pictures .... 


(See suggestions on stories) 




Songs 


(See Appendix D) 


Handwork . . 


RaflBa, grass, straw . 


Napkin rings 


3.00 to 4.00 




Flower stand mats, braided 
Needlebook case 
Doll hammock 




Burlap 


School bag 

Porch pillow cover 

Brush broom holder 




Wood strips, clothes- 






pins, cigar boxes . 


Dolls, doll furniture 
Bird houses 
Button boxes 




Periodicals .... 


Use scissors and paste 

Make flower books, animal books, 

automobile books, funny picture 

books 



386 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



FiKST Grade — Mat 



Observation . . Plant life 
9.00 to 10.30 



Animal life 



Earth and sky 
People . . . 



Play .... Relay . . 
10.30 to 12.00 

Individual . 



Outdoors 



Folk dances 
Free play . 
Stories . . . Literature . 
1.30 to 3.00 



Songs 

Pictures . . . . 

Handvxrrk . . Cretonne, denim, 

3.00 to 4.00 flannel . . . . 



Toweling 



Macrame cord 
Wood, cigar boxes 



Dandelions 

Lilac 

Snowball 

Fruit blossoms 

Red-headed woodpecker 

Flicker 

Bee 

Clouds 

How little people spend birthdays 

The May basket 

Bean bag 

Potato 

Ball, 3, 4, 5 

Ring-toss, 1, 2 

Roly-poly, 1, 2 

Tenpins, 3, 4 

Come with me 

Five geese in a flock 

Knots in May 

(See Appendix E) 

Recess 

Reading 

TelUng 

Dramatizing 

(See Appendix D) 

(See suggestions on stories) 

Holder 
Lamp mat 
Needle-case 
Doilies 
Sewing bags 
Laundry bags 
Bibs, special designs 
Initials 

Dresser covers 
Knotted bags 
Fancy mats 

Handkerchief boxes (cretonne cov- 
ered) 
Button box 
Boats 
Wagons 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES S87 

OUTLINE ON THE WIND ^ 

1. The Problem 

Adults readily recognize that the wind is a great helper, 
at times, and at other times the wind is a real hindrance. 
This is generally the case with all forms of natural phenomena 
in earth and sky. In the main, such phenomena are accepted 
as more helpful than harmful. Children may be readily 
led to recognize this in the case of the wind. But children 
may be first interested in the wind as something that blows 
them fun : the wind thus helps them play. This distinction 
between helping adults and helping children need not be 
made, but by doing so teachers will probably give to their 
pupils somewhat more acquaintance and appreciation of 
this phenomenon. 

This topic may, therefore, be divided into three parts : 

(1) What the wind does to help people. 

(2) What the wind does to hinder people. 

(3) What the wind does to give fun to children. 

It is probably unwise to attempt to explain to pupils 
what the wind is or what makes it blow. 

2. Sources of Information for Teachers 
(Only a few of many references are given here) 

(1) Selected stories 

The North Wind and the Duck. Brooks, Stories of the Red 

Children, page 21. (Dramatize.) 
The Wind and the Sun. Bailey and Lewis, For the Children's 

Hour, page 155. (Dramatize.) 
The Wind's Work. Lindsay, Mother Stories, Book I, 

page 1. (Illustrate.) 

* This outline is for First Grade for March. 



388 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The Story of ^olus. Beckwith, In Mythland, Book I, 

page 31. (Dramatize.) 
North Wind. Robinson, Skyward and Back, page 41. 

(Dramatize.) 
How the Wind Fixed Matters. Half a Hundred Stories, 

page 189. (Illustrate.) 
The North Wind at Play. Bryce, Dramatic Reader, page 33, 

(Dramatize.) 
The Vain Weathercock. Wickes, Stories to Act, page 122. 

(Dramatize.) 
The Wind. Simvas, Child Literature, page 4:9. (Conversation.) 

(2) Selected poems 

The Wind. R. L. Stevenson, Child's Garden of Verses. 

(Memorize second stanza.) 
Who Has Seen the Wind? Rossetti, Poems for Children, 

page 48. 
The Wind. Foulke, Twilight Stories, page 87. 
Which Way Does the Wind Blow? Wilson, Nature Study, 

Book I, page 56. 
The Four Winds. Sherman, Little Folk Lyrics, page 45. 
The Wind in a Frolic. Howitt, Wiggin, and Smith, The Posy 

Ring, page 38. 
Song of the Little Winds. (Richards), Wide Awake Readers, 

Book II, page 84. 
The Wind. McMurry, Classic Stories, page 22. 
The Four Winds. Stedman, Lovejoy, Nature in Verse, 

page 255. 
The North Wind Doth Blow. (Mother Goose), Williams, 

Choice Literature, Book I, page 127. 

(3) Selected songs 

Gaynor. Songs of the Child World, Book I, page 56. 
Jenks and Rust. Song Echoes from Child Land, page 30. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 389 

Neidlinger. Small Songs for Small Singers, page 8. 

Riley and Gaynor. Songs of the Child World, Book II, 

pages 8, 12. 
Stevenson, Song Book, page 59. 

(4) Selected pictures 

Easy Road to Reading, Book I, pages 6-7. 

Nature and Life Readers, Book II, page 15. 

Little Kingdom Primer, pages 84-85. 

MeCullough. Little Stories for Little People, pages 15, 84, 

109. 
Little Kingdom Reader, Book I, page 26. 
Holton-Curry Readers, Book I, page 89. 
Wilson. Nature Study in Elementary Schools, Book I, 

page 6. 
Summers Readers, Book I, page 9. 
Wray. Little Playmates, page 59. 
Young and Field Readers, Book II, pages 55-89. 

3. Readings for Pupils 

Aldine Readers, Book I, pages 25, 66, 68, 70, 72. 

Bass. Stories of Plant Life, pages 12-13. 

Bryce. Short Stories for Little Folks, page 39. 

Easy Road to Reading, Book II, page 51. 

Holton-Curry Readers, Book I, page 55. 

Howe Readers, Book II, page 10. 

Ketchum and Rice. Our Story Reader, pages 71, 72, 78, 79. 

Little Kingdom Readers, Book I, page 27. 

MeCullough. Little Stories for Little People, page 108. 

Nature and Life Primer, pages 54, 56, 60, 62. 

Nature and Life Readers, Book II, page 14. 

Pathways in Nature and Literature Readers, Book I, pages 

47-50. 
Robinson. Skyward and Back, page 41. 



390 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Serl and Evans Primer, page 53. 
Simms, Child Literature, page 49. 
Story Reader, Book I, pages 18, 21, 65. 
Studies in Reading, Book I, page 138. 
Wide Awake Readers, Book II, page 81. 
Wray. Little Playmates, page 57. 
Wind and the Sun (Fable) in : 

1. Bass. Stories of Plant Life, page 11. 

2. Brooks' Reader, II, page 103. 

3. Gardner. Work that Is Play, page 50. 

4. Howe Primer, page 113. 

5. Jones Reader, I, page 132. 

6. Morse Reader, I, page 124. 

7. New Century Readers, I, page 96. 

8. Reading Literature Readers, II, page 11. 

9. Summers Reader, I, page 8. 

10. Wilson. Nature Study in Elementary Schools, I, 
page 170. 

4. Suggestions for Treatment 

(1) AU first- and second-grade pupils have had fun in 
the wind and they have seen the wind help and hinder 
people. They are, therefore, ready for a conference. Let 
this first conference be spontaneous and without teacher 
directions or organization. Later conferences may be 
selected phases of the topic and may be somewhat organized. 

(2) Blackboard work is a great aid here. Let the pupils 
be free in illustrating how the wind helps, hinders, and 
contributes to fun. Paper drawings may be a " refinement " 
of the blackboard work. 

(3) Stevenson's poem, " The Wind," may be learned, and 
in song is one of the best. 

(4) Paper cuttings can be used to good effect in represent- 
ing drying clothes on the line, turning the farmer's windmill. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 391 

flying the boy's kite, turning an umbrella inside out, trees 
bending, smoke from a chimney. These cuttings in white 
paper may be mounted on black paper with good effect. 

(5) Pinwheels, weathercocks, kites, may be made as wind 
toys in further study of the wind. 

(6) Dramatic work is suggested in the selected stories for 
teachers given above. These stories should be dramatized 
as a part of conference study of the wind. 

(7) There is rich material here for eight or ten days' work 
(one hour and a half each day), but probably four or five 
days would be sufficient. 

HELPING OTHERS^ 

1. The Problem 

Most primary school teachers at one or more times in 
the year call the attention of their pupils to the importance 
of helping others. This instruction is usually quite incidental 
in some lesson in reading, a number or a language lesson, or 
helpfulness (in the abstract) is the topic for some morning talk. 

Helping others is sufficiently important to call for real 
study by these little people to the extent of about one hour 
and a half a day for a week. Here is an opportunity for 
direct service to the home and the community, as well as 
more immediately to the school itself. This is clearly a 
problem in helping children do better in their normal and 
wholesome activities. 

2. Sources of Information for Teachers 

(1) Selected stories 

Little Ted. Half a Hundred Stories, page 69. (Illustrate.) 

Snow White and Rose Red. O'Grady and Throop, The 

Teachers' Story Tellers' Book, page 253. (Dramatize.) 

^ This outline is for Second Grade for October. 



392 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

The Elves and the Shoemaker. Bryant, Bow To Tell 

Stories, page 109. (Dramatize.) 
Dust under the Rug. Lindsay, Mother Stories, page 157. 

(Dramatize.) 
The Search for a Good Child. Lindsay, Mother Stories, 

page 121. (Conversation.) 
The Birthday Present. Lindsay, More Mother Stories, page 

85. (Illustrate.) 

(2) Selected poems 

Which Loved Best.'^ McMurry and Cook, Songs of the 

Tree Top and Meadow, page 51. 
You Who Are the Oldest. Horace Mann Readers, Book I, 

page 81. 
Somebody's Mother. The Jones Reader, Book III, p. 223. 
Little Brown Hands (first stanza) . Beeson, Child's Calendar 

Beautiful, page 168. 
How to Help. Studies in Reading, Book I, page 120. 

(3) Selected pictures 
Dopp, Bobby and Betty at Home, pages 48, 55, 56, 64, 70, 72, 

76, 78, 80. 
Gordon Reader, Book I, page 75. 
Horace Mann Readers, Book I, page 87. 
Merrill Readers, Book II, page 68. 
Serl and Evans Primer, page 62. 
Story Readers Primer, pages 29, 31, 38. 
Story Readers, Book I, page 60. 
Summers Primer, pages 42, 56, 99. 
Wide Awake Primer, pages 75, 90. 
Wide Awake Readers, Book I, pages 14, 95. 

(4) Selected songs 
Hubbard. Merry Songs and Games, pages 74, 184. 
Jenks and Rust. Song Echoes from Child Land, page 9. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 393 

Knowlton, Nature Songs for Children, page 74. 

Riley and Gaynor. Songs for the Child World, Book II, p. 74. 

Smith, E. Songs for Little People, Book II, page 11. 

3. Stories for the Pupils 

Child Life Readers, Book I, page 68. 

Alexander. Child Classics, Primer, page 59. 

Dopp. Bobby and Betty at Home, pages 72, 76, -78, 80, 106. 

Grover. Magnolia Primer, page 100. 

Gordon Readers, Book I, page 75. 

Howe Readers, Book II, pages 53-79. 

Horace Mann Readers, Book I, pages 83, 85, 86. 

Jones Readers, Book I, pages 94, 95, 99. 

Merrill Readers, Book II, page 67. 

New Sloan Readers, Book II, page 76. 

Our Story Reader, page 64. 

Riverside Readers, Book II, pages 40, 65. 

Serl and Evans Primer, pages 62-64. 

Stepping Stones to Literature, II, page 20. 

New Sloan Reader, I, page 70. 

Standard Catholic Reader, II, page 17. 

Story Readers, Book I, page 60. 

Summers Readers' Primer, page 56. 

Summers Readers, Book I, page 66. 

Wide Awake Primer, pages 75-90. 

Wide Awake Readers, Book I, page 95, Book II, page 24. 

Art Literature, I, page 42. 

Child Life Readers, III, pages 79, 90. 

4. Suggestions for Treatment 

(1) First of all, this study must not be treated as a serious 
lesson in morals. It is a study of one of the joyous activities 
of children, and only if treated in this spirit will the time 
and energy given this topic be worth while. 



394 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

(2) The topic is readily divided into parts such as : 
How I help at school : 

I pick up paper. 

I erase the boards. 

I pass the paper and pencils. 

I place the chairs. 

I straighten the books on the shelves. 

I pick up coats and caps that I see on the floor. 

I hang up the towel when I see it on the floor. 

I keep my table neat. -' 

I lead the marching. 

How I help at home : 
I set the table. 
I carry out the dishes. 
I sweep the basement. 
I hold the baby for mother. 
I get things for mother. 
I gather the eggs. 
I wipe the dishes. 
I sweep the dining room. 
I sweep the rug. 
I help mother cook. 
I put the dishes away. 
I sweep the kitchen. 
I help papa bring up the coal. 
I carry mother's supper to her. 
I go upstairs for mother's glasses. 
I bring father's slippers. 
I bring mother's sewing basket to her. 
I bring in the paper every evening. 

What I have seen other people doing to help : 
A man put on a lady's rubber. 
A boy picked up a girl's handkerchief. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES S95 

A big boy helped a little boy put on his rubbers. 

A man carried a lady's bundle. 

A man pulled a little boy's sled. 

A little girl fell down. A man helped her up. 

(3) Thirty minutes may easily be devoted to conversation 
between teachers and pupils in which pupils tell particular 
things they do to help others. This will naturally call for 
more than a mere statement of such helpful acts. For 
example : " I set the table for mama." (1) What dishes 
are used? (2) How arranged.'* Talk about various plans 
of setting tables. Such considerations contribute to a very 
much larger helpfulness. The table may be set, and yet not 
half set. 

(4) While working on this topic each day, pupils should 
be asked to tell of how they helped since yesterday. Even 
later an occasional report of this kind will contribute to 
developing the habit of helping. This " follow up " plan 
of work will develop interest in observing closely helpful 
acts among people and will develop a wholesome attitude 
in the pupils. 

(5) The stories and songs supply rich topics for conversa- 
tion. Three stories are suggested above as good to dram- 
atize. Pupils may even dramatize acts of helpfulness in 
home and community. 

(6) Drawing, too, may be appealed to as a means of 
impressing upon pupils the idea of helping others. Much 
illustrative work of this kind can be done with profit. These 
drawings — both on blackboard and on paper — may be 
labeled, e.g., " I set the table," " I help mother cook," etc. 
Here is a little writing and reading, each absolutely normal 
and each highly motivated. 

(7) More "reading" might easily be provided; the 
teacher and pupils may make up a story and write this on 



396 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

the blackboard. A stenographer could take down the 
conversation of the pupils in a class conference; a little 
editing would make this report good reading material. 

(8) This topic may be scheduled for any time of the year. 
It is always appropriate. 

SUGGESTIONS ON PLAY FOR SEPTEMBER 

The first exercise the first day may well be a relay game. 
This is even better than enrolling the pupils. Set them at 
once into an enjoyable activity. The activity should be 
so intense and enjoyable that the pupils have no feeling 
of a " school atmosphere " but rather are perfectly at home. 

In the relay game, as many as forty can play in one game, 
twenty on each side. When more than forty are to play, 
three or four contesting lines may be formed. The pupils 
must, of course, be evenly divided in the contesting lines. 
Various methods of dividing the players into equal groups 
may be used. Some are suggested later. 

In these relay games genuine Jun must he the object. Inci- 
dental to fun but also instrumental in enhancing the fun, the 
following may receive attention from the start : Free conver- 
sation — This must be courteous and not boisterous. It 
is an especially good opportunity for the pupils to become 
acquainted with the names of their playmates. The con- 
versation will naturally be about the game itself. Other 
topics, even if not related but of good character, should be 
encouraged. Graceful movement — Rough play must be 
vetoed from the outset. Graceful carriage and beautiful 
bearing add to the enjoyment. However, teachers must 
beware of setting too high a standard at the beginning. 
The game must not be used as an instrument for teaching 
gracefulness. 

One relay game with occasional rests for special conversa- 
tion or directions may easily occupy thirty minutes. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 397 

Drawing upon the board is of interest to pupils at this 
early stage. By a little suggestion from the teacher, the 
pupils will spend thirty minutes in crudely but joyfully 
representing something of the game by simple drawings. In 
the meantime, many other markings will be put upon the 
board. Little limitation should be placed upon this in the 
first month. 

In the individual contest games, no scores are in place at 
first. The need for a more accurate measure of relative 
skill than offhand judgment of the " best " player should 
determine the time of using numbers. Do not hasten this 
time. 

Conversations and drawings relating to these individual 
contest games may be provided as with relay games. 

The outdoor games are here suggested as school work, not 
merely " recess " games. They need the same attention 
as the games suggested above but with much care, lest 
objections be made. 

No paper work need be done on games in the month of 
September. Larger movements in drawings on the black- 
board are preferable. 

No reading of games by the teacher is advised in this 
month, but much conversation is natural and should be 
indulged in freely. 

Camera pictures of pupils at play and their drawings on 
the board would be helpful. An " at home " attitude should 
be apparent in the behavior of the pupils. 

The teacher need not be embarrassed by having no 
cyhnders, roly-polies, or bean bags. Bottles may be used 
for cylinders, a potato with a clothespin inserted may serve 
as a roly-poly, and any object, such as an eraser, handker- 
chief, or ball, may be used in place of a bean bag. However, 
these things should be made by the pupils early. They are 
good " projects " for handwork. 



398 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Grades HI and IV. The topics for these two grades might 
be interchanged. For that reason each Hst of topics is labeled 
as supplementary to the other grade. Only one outline, the 
grocery store, is here given for Grade IV. Most of the 
topics for these two grades could be studied at any time 
of the year. 

Grade III 

Local Industries and Activities 

Supplementary to Grade IV 

Our Homes 
Foods 

Harvest — in fall 

Gardens — in spring. Vegetables 

Bakery- 
Drug store 

Candy kitchen and confectionery 

Home kitchen and dining-room 
Clothing 

Shoe store and cobbler shop 

Dry goods store 

Department store 

Laundry — wash day at home 
House and Yard 

Furniture store 

Dishware and crockery store 

Wall paper store 

Hardware store 

Coal and wood dealers 

Lawns — grasses 

Ornamental trees and shrubs 

Flowers 

Work and play at home 
Our City 

Post office 

Fire department 

Dentist office 

Jewelry store 

Music store 

Florist 

Five-and-ten-cent-store 

The nickel 

Hotels and restaurants 

Parks and playgrounds 

Livery and transfer business 

Blacksmith shop 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 399 

Grade IV 
Local Industries and Activities 

Supplementary to Grade III 

Our Homes 
Foods 

Flour mill 

Grocery store 

Wholesale feed and flour store 

Meat market 

Dairy 

Ice and cold storage (a summer topic) 

Food and health 
Clothing 

Haberdasher store 

Tailor shop 

Ladies' furnishing store 
- Ladies' millinery store 

Dressmaking establishment 

Clothing and health 
Shelter 

Lumber yards 

Planing mill ^ 

Brickyards 

Stone and marble cutters 

Furnace and tin shop 

Plumber 

Electrical supplies 

Architect 

House furnishings 

Shelter and health 

Furniture 

Decorations 

Heating 

Lighting 

Electrical conveniences 

Meters 
Our City 

Water, light, gas 

Street department 

Railroad stations 

City government — including law offices (include county government 
at county seats) 

City schools 

Doctors and hospitals, oculists 

Banks 

Express offices 

Real estate, insurance, and allied business concerns 



400 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

THE GROCERY STORE 

The Store 

I, Draw a map of the town, showing principal streets and 
locate the grocery stores by names. Locate home of 
the pupil and his own store in case each pupil makes 
his own map. 

II. What kinds of goods do grocers handle ? 

1. Make out classified lists, one at a time, as suggested 

by outline. 

(1) Cereals and crackers : oatmeal, rice, flour, 

wafers, etc. 

(2) Beverages : coffee, tea, etc. 

(3) Spices and extracts : pepper, nutmeg, vanilla, etc. 

(4) Fruits : apples, oranges, etc. 

(5) Vegetables : potatoes, celery, etc. 

(6) Meats. 

(7) Other foods. 

(8) Other articles. 

2. Arrange these in alphabetical order. Indicate : 

(1) Staples. 

(2) Luxuries. 

3. In what are these groceries kept ^ 

(1) Make list of articles kept in bulk. 

(2) Specify the form of containing vessel. 

(3) Note sizes used, amounts contained. 

(4) Make list of articles in case or can. Note char- 

acter of containing vessels, and sizes and 
quantity of such vessels. 

(5) Make drawings of interesting or peculiar cans, 

cases, or vessels. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 401 

4. How long may various articles be kept? 

(1) Classify leading articles into two or more groups. 

a. Those readily decaying. 

b. Those wasting slowly. 

c. Those long preserved. 

(2) Note form of decay or loss. These may be 

designated as : 

a. Rotting. 

b. Molding. 

c. Drying. 

d. Becoming stale, etc. 

Source of Groceries 

I. Where do our merchants get their goods ? (The original 
source and not the wholesale stores is intended.) 

1. Take time to locate chief ones only, and chief places. 

2. Method. 

a. Turn to index; e.g., Carpenter's Geographical 

Reader. Read references of various grocery 
products. 

b. Locate on map where situated. Note climate and 

soil needed. 

c. Pupils make record on outline map. 

II. How do these products grow ? 

1. Describe the plant or tree. Make drawings. 

2. Note the time of fruit bearing. 

3. It is hardly possible to study the farming of such at 

this time. 



402 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

III. In what form are these products sent ? 

1. Note especially how certain fruits, for example, are 
prepared against damage and decay. 

IV. At what seasons are certain groceries in the market ? 

Special results should be the distribution maps, with brief 
statements in explanation. Also drawings and descriptions 
of the plant from which the product comes. 

Special Studies 

I. What are the special characteristics of various grocery 

products ? 

1. Examine, e.g., the banana ; its form, size, substance, 

taste. 

2. Illustrate in drawings or water colors (drawing to 

scale). 

II. What uses are made of various groceries ? 

1. If possible here, do some work (in the department of 

home economics) preparing groceries for the table. 

2. Write up results in the form of recipes. 

III. (Preparation and preservation belong to the problem 
of manufacturing in the sixth grade. Therefore omit 
here.) 

Special results may be : 

1. Classified lists, well arranged and neatly written. 

2. All articles spelled correctly. 

3. Special drawings, e.g., berry basket or olive bottle 

with raised bottoms. 

4. Descriptive report including 1, 2, and 3, illustrated 

by any suitable pictures that may be found. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 403 

Purchasing Groceries 
I. What groceries do we use at home ? 

1. Prepare at home lists of principal groceries used. 

2. Ask parents to estimate the amounts used each 

month, or secure these from monthly bills. (Care 
must be taken not to provoke parents by asking 
too much from them.) 

3. Calculate amounts for a year. Work this out with 

considerable care and in good form. Multiplica- 
tion tables must be well used. 

II. How are these articles purchased ? 

1. Note how different articles are measured; e.g., 

case, box, bottle, weight, measure. 

2. Make out a table of prices. (Compare with lists 

of previous years.) 

3. Study the scales — principle of balance. 

(1) Make drawings or models as illustrations. 

(2) Study the " machine method " of calculating 

cost of an article. 

(3) Study tables of weights used. 

4. Study dry and liquid measure. 

(1) Note the difference. 

(2) Study the two tables. 

5. Study grocery bills. 

(1) Get billheads. 

(2) Make out many and calculate rapidly. 

(3) Receipts. 

(4) Calculate annual expense. 

III. How do our various groceries compare with one another ? 

1. Make the comparisons on basis of annual cost. Con- 
sider leading articles only : flour, fruit, sugar, etc. 



404 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



2. Results may be in form of table, or fractional rela- 

tions indicated by drawings. 

3. Comparisons may also be made with other expenses, 

e.g., rent, coal, etc. 

Special result might be written report on this study, fully 
illustrated with arithmetical problems, drawings, tables, 
etc, (This topic is very important and needs to be 
executed with emphasis on good form, and with rapidity 
and accuracy.) 

Grades V and VI. A time schedule for these topics is 
suggested, but this schedule is very flexible and can be 
changed easily. One outline is here given, — transportation 
for Grade VI. Sources of information, especially in the 
readings possible for pupils of this age, are important in 
planning the work. 

Grade V 



World-wide Industries and Activities 



Topics 



Approximate Time 



Recreation 3 weeks 

Local sport 

Water resorts 

Mountains 

Travel and sightseeing 

Fishing 4 weeks 

Hunting 5 weeks 

Lumbering — forestry 5 weeks 

Manners and customs 6 weeks 

Mining 4 weeks 

Coal 

Iron, lead, etc. 

Gold, silver 

Oil 
Farming 6 weeks 

Crops 

Animals 

Machinery 

Soils 



Sept.-Oct. 



Oct.-Nov. 

Nov.-Dec. 

Dec-Jan. 

Feb.-March 

March-April 



April-May 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 405 



Grade VI 

World-wide Industries and Activities 
Topics Approximate Time 

Business and labor 5 weeks . . . Sept.-Oct. 

Banking 

Commerce 

Real estate 

Trades 
Manufacturing 8 weeks . . . Oct.-Nov.-Dec. 

Textiles 

Wood 

Iron 

Clay — glass 
Transportation 8 weeks . . . Dec.-Jan.-Feb. 

Local transportation 

Animal — roads 

Steam 

Ship — water 

Electricity 

Gasoline 

Aeroplane 
Governmental activities 6 weeks . . . March-April 

Army 

Navy 

Post office 
Government 5 weeks . . . April-May 

Local 

State 

National 
Health and village improvement ... 3 weeks . . . May 



TRANSPORTATION ^ 

Local Transportation 

(The purpose in this section is to give pupils a sense of the 
amount of traflac that is going on about us, as a part of 
the Hfe we are living. This section of the study gives 
pupils an introduction to transportation at large.) 

^ See Appendix C for list of readings used. 



406 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

I. What are the things transported in this city ? 

1. Let pupils make observations of the extent and 

variety of things passing their own home, or a 
given place, in a given time. 

2. Enumerate a large number of things under such 

classes as : 

(1) Foods (delivery of groceries and the like). 

(2) Clothing (merchants delivering hats and shoes). 

(3) Shelter (returning a borrowed umbrella). 

(4) Tools (placing knives and forks on the table). 

3. Discuss the purpose in all this moving about. 

II. Note the great variety of agents and instruments used 
in this transportation. 

1. The kinds of power used: ponies, horses, mules, 

oxen, men, electricity, steam, gasoline. 

(1) Under what circumstances is one of these agents 

used rather than another? Let boys make 
inquiries of livery men, transfer companies, 
street contractors. (In this work boys should 
be selected with care, probably two to go to 
each place that would probably gladly supply 
information. This is good " home study " 
or it may be done in school hours. It also en- 
courages the boy to inquire on everyday topics.) 

(2) Some information might also be secured on the 

relative amount of investment and the prob- 
able difference in profit. Annual cost of 
keeping a horse may be calculated. 

2. The kinds of vehicles and other instruments. 
(1) List the variety of carts, wagons, etc. 

Study their structure. Note names of various 
parts. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 407 

(2) Note other instruments and their use: e.g., 

crowbar, wheelbarrow, pulley, teeter-board, 
swing, etc. Pupils may here come to under- 
stand the general principle of the lever. 
Make drawings to illustrate. 

(3) Prices of various vehicles and instruments may 

be secured and something of the service they 
can give. 

III. Where in the city is transportation chiefly carried on? 

1. Make an outline map of the principal streets and 

transportation centers; e.g., railway depots, 
stores, lumber yards, etc. (This map should be 
made to scale.) 

2. Designate on this map lines of transportation. 

3. Note conditions that determine centers and lines of 

transportation. 

Animal Power and the Public Highway 

(The horse and mule have already been noted in Local Trans- 
portation. They are used extensively in other countries, 
but in some other countries characteristic animals are 
used.) 

I. Animals and vehicles in other places. 

1. Mexican ox and oxcart. 

2. Eskimo dog and sled. 

3. Irish jaunting car. 

4. English hansom. 

5. Reindeer and sled. 

6. Camel on the desert. 

7. Elephant in India. 

8. Buffalo in southeast Asia. 

9. Llama in South America. 



408 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

10. Dog and man or woman in Holland and Belgium. 

11. Wheelbarrow and chair in China. 

12. Jinrikisha in Japan, 

etc. 

Make drawings and statements to describe them and their 
uses. 

II. Roads and bridges. 

1. Describe dirt, corduroy, macadam, brick, asphalt, 

etc. Where are these most to be found.'' What 
advantages and disadvantages ? 

2. Calculate approximate cost of brick, asphalt, or the 

like on your parents' property. (First secure 
price per unit.) 

3. Note by name various bridges : 
Covert. 

Suspension. 
Covered. 
Draw. 
Cantilever. 

Steam Railway 
I. The engine. 

1. Read of Watt and the teakettle. Experiment at 

home with a teakettle. 

2. Study principle of engines. Visit engineering lab- 

oratory and observe chief features of the engine. 
Visit the railway station. (Secure model of an 
engine, if possible.) Study diagrams showing 
important parts — especially piston and valves. 

3. Make drawing of steam chamber, piston, etc. 

4. Construct a piston of a glass tube of large diameter ; 

construct valves and show how valves act under 
pressure of breath in place of steam. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 409 

5. Study strength of engine. Compare with team of 

horses pulling two tons of coal (the usual amount 
delivered in cities). 

6. Ascertain coal consumed. Figure costs between 

distances. 

II. Cars drawn by engines — Make an excursion to examine 
cars. 

1. Cars: freight, box, coal, express, mail, passenger, 

Pullman. 

2. Study structure, weight, capacity, dimensions. 

3. Note structure of the trucks, and study structure 

and principle of the air brakes. Make drawings ; 
explain by descriptions and calculations. 

III. Roads and routes. 

1. Study kind of ballast, bed; ties, kind of wood, 

length, weight, shape ; rails, how laid ; grades 
on road. 

2. Study chief railroad routes in the United States. 

Explain location of routes and centers. (Study 
railroad map.) 

IV. The traffic. 

1. Study the switch. Make drawings to illustrate 

signals, colored lights, whistles, arm movements, 
and block system. 

2. Study rates of speed distances. 

3. Note the train crew and duties. 

4. Estimate and ascertain price of tickets between 

various places. Note Pullman rates and regula- 
tions ; freight rates and regulations. 

5. Study standard time. Make clear our dependence 

on longitude and time. 



410 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Waterways 

I. The rowboat (as type of simplest boat), showing general 

appearance of the boats and the principle of the lever. 

1. Introduce by oral discussion, noting : 

(1) Shape, bow, stern. 

(2) Bottom, flat, keel. 

(3) Position of seats. 

(4) Location of oars, shape. 

2. Study principle of the lever. 

(1) Show general resemblance between oars and any 

lever. 

(2) Construct a lever and measure by scales and 

ruler, " power," " weight," and " arms." 

(3) Calculate weight of a boat when a man of given 

strength pulls. 

(4) Find application — illustration — elsewhere and 

study quantitatively. 

(5) Make drawings of the oar as lever. 

II. How boats are constructed. 

1. Begin the study in class by naming, characterizing, 

and illustrating as many kinds of boats as class 
can. 

2. Supplement this list by study of readings (see ency- 

clopedias for names and classes of boats). 

3. Study parts of boats ; e.g., rudder, keel, propeller, 

wheel, pilot house, bow, stern, etc. 

4. Study arrangements of boats for cabins, engine 

room, freight rooms, dining saloons, hospital, 
reading rooms, lounging rooms, smoke rooms, 
gymnasium, etc. 

5. Collect pictures, clippings, for illustrations. 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 411 

III. How boats float and how much they carry. 

1. Weigh wood, stone, or iron, and water of about the 

same volume. Compare. 

2. State and illustrate by drawing the principle of 

floating. 

3. Calculate cubic feet of water displaced by ship of 

known tonnage. 

4. Calculate relation to some large building, in cubical 

contents. 

5. Calculate number of coal cars needed to carry an 

equal weight. 

rV. How boats are managed. 

1. Study ship's crew and duties of each member. 

2. Study means of signaling; e.g., starboard, port, 

flags, whistles, lights, etc. 

3. Study harbor guides ; e.g., bells, buoys, lighthouses, 

etc. 

V. Ocean travel. 

1. Topics. -^ 

(1) Size of ocean steamers — speed. 

(2) Routes — with location of ports. 

(3) Longitude and time. 

(4) International date line. 

(5) Compass — direction by stars. 

2. Method. 

(1) Compare length, width, and depth of well-known 

steamer with local objects or distances paced 
off. 

(2) Show by maps various routes with ports. 

(3) Work out table of longitude and time. Calcu- 

late differences in time between two ports 



412 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

when steamer is leaving. Note carefully 
meaning of international date line. 
(4) Compare rapidity of sailing with speed of train. 
Compare knots and miles. 

VI. Inland waterways. 

1. Name and locate navigable rivers. 

(1) Specify chief transportation carried on. 

(2) Note length of such rivers, speed, cities connected. 

2. Study lake traffic, especially the five Great Lakes. 

(1) Consider kinds of freight; direction of such 

transportation. 

(2) Consider routes of travel for recreation on such 

lakes. 

3. Canals. 

(1) Topics. 

Location — names of. 
Service rendered — purpose. 
Shape of canal boats — size. 
Power — speed — cost. 
Locks — principle and working. 

(2) Method. 

Use geographies to find location, names, pur- 
poses. Note service rendered. 

Study shape and size of boats — reasons ; make 
drawing. 

Study how a boat can " climb a hill." Principle 
of locks. 

Make drawing. 

Electric Car and Automobile 
(Outlines not presented here.) 



REPRESENTATIVE OUTLINES 413 

Telegraphs, Telephones, Cables, Compass, etc. 
(Outlines not presented here.) 

Airships 
(Outlines not presented here.) 

Grades VII and VIII. No outlines are presented for these 
grades. The method of the work resembles closely that for 
Grades V and VI, although the work of these last two grades 
is not so fully developed as that in earlier grades. Further, 
recent incorporation of these grades — and Grade IX — 
into a junior high school calls for a very slight modification 
of plans. 

Grades VII and VIII 

Vocational Intelligence 

(Only a few Vocational Activities are here listed) 
For Study by Boys and Girls 

The Merchant 

The Doctor 

The Lawyer 

The Photographer 

The Librarian 

The Landscape Gardener 

The Teacher 

The Miner 

The Farmer 

The Forester 

The Common Laborer 

The Manufactm-er 

The Printer 

The Banker 

The Governmental Official 

The Stenographer and Secretary 

The Commerical Traveler 

The Carpenter 

The Mason 

The Vegetable Gardener 

(See various vocational surveys for suggestions for further vocations for 
study.) 



Statement Outline for Chapter Eighteen 

The problem of relative emphasis is present in all teaching. 
Three aspects of school work are here considered : 
Motive refers to the mental attitude of pupils. 
Material refers to the subject matter studied. 
Method refers to the mode of work by the teacher. 
There is great variation in the relative emphasis given these 

three aspects of school work. 
The question of emphasis is the question of relative values 
between pupils' progress, subject matter studied, and work 
of teacher. 
Emphasis upon material makes the pupil subordinate to the subjects 
he studies. 

The source of subject matter is human experience. 

The nature of subject matter consists of generalizations of 

experience. 
This subject matter is variously used in schools : 

As a means of interpretation and guidance of children's 

activities. 
As occupation and standardization in school. 
Abuse is reached in a stereotyped use. 
Principle : Emphasis upon subject matter slights the pupil. 
Emphasis upon method indicates a wrong relation between pupil 
and subject matter. 

Method is the adaptation of mind to a foreign subject matter. 
General methods do not "work" in every case. 
Special methods are not always reliable. 
Devices are "gingerbread" methods for special cases. 
Principle : Inappropriate subject matter calls for method. 
Emphasis upon motive recognizes normal activities and needs of 
pupils. 

Motive is an advance over method. 

Motive is abused when used as a device in teaching. 

Real motive has its source in the normal experience of people. 

Motive should be served by subject matter, not the reverse. 

Incidentals in real life should receive incidental attention in 

school. 
Principle : Regard for true motives and appropriate subject 
matter minimizes method. 

414 



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 

Material, Method, Motive 

MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 

The terms used. Motive, material, and method con- 
stitute three aspects of school work considered in this chapter. 
The term " motive " refers specifically to the mental attitude 
of pupils toward certain subjects for study, or other forms 
of work or play. Interest is a fair synonym. Pupils have 
a strong motive for studying arithmetic when there is an 
intimate relation between the subject matter of that study 
and certain activities in which they are interested. Motive 
is essentially that " clear intellectual insight into the needs 
of individual and social life as grounds for action." ^ Thus 
in the term " motive " the reference is specifically to the 
pupUs. 

.„ "Material is here used as essentially synonymous with 
subject matter.2 The curriculum is composed of subjects 
or materials for study. Reading, writing, and arithmetic 
constitute a part of the traditional material for study in 
the schools. " How the robin feeds her young ; how the 
oriole's nest is hung," is material studied by Whittier's 
barefoot boy. The blacksmith shop, the post office, the 
bean-bag game, the army and the navy, are some of the 
materials for study listed in this volume. Thus in the term 
" material " reference is specifically to the objects of study. 

Method is essentially the teacher's mode of relating a 
pupil to his object of study. It is a means of teaching. 
There are many methods, or ways, of teaching. It is im- 
portant here not to discuss these various methods, but 

^ Judd, C. H., in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 
2 Neither of these terms is recognized in Monroe's Cyclopedia as a title, 
though both are freely used in other articles. 

415 



416 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

rather to question what emphasis may advisably be given 
to method in relation to the motives of pupils and the ma- 
terials of instruction. Thus method is here used with 
specific reference to the mode of work by the teacher. 

Relative emphasis given. There is no universal agree- 
ment upon the relative emphasis to be given to these three 
elements of school work. Six different relations may be 
found, as indicated in the following tabulation : 



First 


Second 


Third 


Emphasis 


Emphasis 


Emphasis 


Material 


Method 


Motive 


Material 


Motive 


Method 


Method 


Motive 


Material 


Method 


Material 


Motive 


Motive 


Method 


Material 


Motive 


Material 


Method 



All three elements are present in all school work, but 
there is great variation in the relative emphasis given. 
Theory and practice in the same school system may not be 
in agreement. The school work in Portland, Oregon (as 
announced in 1912-1913), may well illustrate this. In 
theory, as the principle underlying the course of study, first 
emphasis seems given to motive. In practice, material 
seems to receive first emphasis, in that the course of study 
for the nine grades is divided into fifty-four parts. This 
organization seems to be upon the assumption that there is 
a definite amount of arithmetic, language, geography, etc., 
to be acquired in nine years. This course of work can best 
be completed by being carefully divided into six parts in 
each of the nine grades. The details of the material in 
instruction have first emphasis. Further illustrations of 
such differences are unnecessary. 

Significance in emphasis given. On which of these three 
elements the first emphasis is placed is of considerable im- 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 417 

portance. In theory (though this may not be formulated), 
most school teachers, administrators, educators, and parents 
would quite agree that the school should be conducted 
strictly in the interests of the pupils. In school practice, 
this point of emphasis has been seriously questioned.'^ Place 
the first emphasis upon material, and pupils' and teachers' 
methods become only means of working over the subject 
matter selected. Place the first emphasis upon motive, or 
the sense of a real and normal problem for the pupil, and 
material and method become agencies to be used by student 
and teacher in working out the particular problem. The 
practice of the traditional school seems clearly to place first 
emphasis upon material, as outlined in the course of study. 
Some normal schools and other professional training schools 
emphasize method. Students of social and industrial life 
see in subject matter and method only means of increasing 
the emphasis upon the real problems of the pupils. Motive 
is given chief emphasis. 

A closer examination of material, method, motive, and 
their relationship is important. In general, too little atten- 
tion is given to the problem involved. The viewpoint taken 
and the consequent relative emphasis given in the conduct 
of school work are factors of great influence upon pupils in 
school and community about the school. 

THE EMPHASIS UPON MATERIAL 

The source of subject matter. Very few teachers wonder 
as to the source of the subject matter contained in the 
arithmetic, the language, or the reading which they teach. 
Such reflections may hardly be expected of the practical 
school teacher ; it is so much easier to accept the course of 
study without thought, and then teach with vigor but without 

^ The reader is referred to the many school surveys, some of which were 
considered in Chapter Four. 



418 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

perspective. But some consideration as to the source of 
what we are teaching contributes much to the viewpoint in 
teaching. 

It is clear that the subject matter of our study has its 
source in the experience of people. The early Babylonians ^ 
wrote and read. Their crude pictograph method of record- 
ing and communicating ideas was used when recording 
and communicating ideas were called for. Reading books 
for school exercises came very much later. Arithmetic 
became a subject for study only after people had consid- 
erable quantitative experience. Among the earlier peoples 
arithmetic was a strictly utilitarian subject.^ The Babylo- 
nians, the Chinese, the Greeks, and the Romans laid first 
emphasis upon the subject for commercial purposes. This 
means that after certain experiences of a quantitative 
nature, people recognized the need of instructing the youth 
in anticipation of meeting such situations. Geography is a 
very much younger subject than reading, writing, or arith- 
metic, because experience that supplied such subject matter 
came later. Our grammar and studies in language forms 
developed only after people had used language quite ex- 
tensively. 

The nature of school subjects. School subjects are 
virtually pigeonhole arrangements for classifying experiences 
for the purpose of study. And yet it is not the experiences 
that are classified, but rather generalizations from those 
experiences. Arithmetic, for example, is a statement of 
how people multiply when they have transactions involving 
repeated combinations : as in making purchases, calculating 
areas, figuring interest. People do not experience arith- 
metic, but they have a great variety of experiences involving 
quantity. The quantitative aspects of these experiences 

1 Huey, E. B., The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, page 187. 

2 Smith, D. E., The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics, pages 1-18. 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 419 

are generalized and expressed in terms of addition, multi- 
plication, fractions, and percentage. Thus we may think 
of arithmetic as the cross section of a great variety of ex- 
periences on the quantitative level. Language books do 
not describe real experience, but generalize experience on 
the language level. Even geography, so generally defined 
as the description of the earth as the home of man, outlines 
general conditions for life more than it describes actual 
experiences of real people. 

This view of the nature of school studies suggests an 
explanation for the new subjects as they appear from time 
to time in the curriculum. Manual training came to be a 
subject in school when it was deemed best to study certain 
aspects of experience for which there was no pigeonhole 
provision. Arithmetic and drawing had already included 
parts of what is now in the subject of manual training, but 
neither one nor both together could include all that was 
needed. A recent book advocates the addition of a new 
subject in the curriculum, " industry." ^ This new subject 
is suggested because in recent years industrial life has be- 
come so prominent that the traditional subjects do not 
adequately provide a place for this in the curriculum. 

Thus our usual subjects of study have their source in the 
experiences of people. Certain aspects of these experiences 
are selected; comparisons are made and generalizations 
reached. These generalizations constitute the arithmetic, 
grammar, geography, and other subjects used in school. 
The daily paper reports the rise and fall of market prices. 
Insm-ance companies publish annual reports of their financial 
transactions. But the arithmetic describes the general 
character of gain and loss in terms of percentage. 

Use of subject matter. Now that racial experience has 
developed this subject matter and custom has organized 
^ Cole, P. R., Industrial Education in the Elementary School. 



420 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

it into what we know as the curriculum, it is natural to ask 
what use the school is to make of it. Professor De^ey has 
pointed out the two uses which are more generally advo- 
cated : interpretation and guidance.^ A child's activities 
must be interpreted in terms of certain growth tendencies. 
Child life is not final ; it has meaning only as it gives indi- 
cations of attaining unto the results of racial experience, 
as expressed in the various subjects of study. Thus in 
terms of this subject matter the child's successes and his 
failures are to be appraised. Then, too, the child must be 
guided in his activities so that he shall develop into the 
attainments of the adult. If the " studies " now constitut- 
ing the curriculum are a generalized statement of racial 
experience, they may be used to give direction to children 
in their efforts to attain to the position reached by their 
elders. Thus, as Professor Dewey says, the curriculum is 
as a map which serves to economize effort in preventing 
useless wandering and in leading most quickly to desired 
results. 

In theory these two uses sound well; in practice they 
appear well to school men and school communities. But 
close inspection of the traditional school work reveals the 
truth that this subject matter used as interpretation and 
guidance is narrow when compared with the widely varied 
experiences of the child and the adult. How much of a 
boy's daily activities can be interpreted adequately in terms 
of arithmetic, spelling, grammar, geography? Where, in 
the traditional curriculum, is to be found the subject matter 
by which may be interpreted a boy's initiative, his vigor, 
his judgment, his honesty, in his work? Moreover, in real 
life, the father who leads his son to aspire to business or 
professional success does not usually direct his son to the 
arithmetic, spelling, or geography of that business or pro- 
^ Dewey, J., The Child and the Curriculum, pages 18-30. 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 421 

fession. Effective guidance is in terms of certain social or 
industrial activities. A boy is guided toward mechanical 
engineering by his vision of the personal satisfaction and 
social and industrial service of the engineer. How much of 
personal satisfaction or industrial service, however analyzed, 
is found expressed in the Three R's and allied subjects ? 

A further use of the traditional subject matter is seen in 
its being used as a standard by which the masses of pupils 
are kept somewhat together. This is a very common use, 
— indeed it is almost universal. How easily a stereotyped 
curriculum can be used as the standard by which to keep a 
widely differentiated group of pupils on about the same level 
of attainment ! Closely related to this use of the curriculum 
is that of regarding it as a form of " busy- work." Children 
must be employed while they are maturing from the age of 
six to that of fourteen. This subject matter, constituting 
the eight years' course of study, serves well to occupy the 
thousands of children during this time. 

Unquestionably children in school should be employed. 
Some form of " busy-work " is imperative. And in real 
life there are standards of living. But this busy- work is 
sham and these standards are unavoidably low, when the 
traditional curriculum is put to such use. One is again 
reminded of " Emmy Lou laboriously copying digits " as a 
type of occupying time during this period of maturing. 
Just this type of number work has resulted in the standardiz- 
ing of arithmetical work throughout our schools. There 
is great uniformity in the character and amount of arith- 
metical work assigned to the various grades in the schools 
of the country.^ So long as chief emphasis is placed upon 
the subject matter of instruction the curriculum will be 

^ Recent attention given to standardizing school work by means of tests 
is very likely to narrow the subjects of study and mechanize the methods 
of instruction. Further consideration of this is given in Chapter Nineteen. 



422 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

more and more stereotyped and narrowed. Such emphasis 
demands definiteness in this subject matter. The result 
is seen in the Three R's and other traditional subjects, in 
which there is almost universal correspondence as to nature 
and scope. With this curriculum thus definitely fixed, it 
is most natural to use it as a means of interpretation and of 
guidance; to use it as a form of pupil-employment and 
pupil-attainment. 

Abuse of subject matter. This use to which subject 
matter is put easily leads to a serious abuse. The situation 
is virtually this : Racial experience has developed and 
formulated a quantity of information which, in school, is 
known as the course of study. It is then assumed that 
every bit of this subject matter must be used. This means 
that any unit of subject matter may be approached with 
the question : What purpose has this for the student ? But 
there are some very positive objections to approaching sub- 
ject matter in such a way, and there are many difficulties 
in such a course. In the first place, much of the material 
for study consists of mere facts in which the author has no 
purpose other than supplying any reader with information. 
What purpose has an author of a geography in presenting a 
short paragraph on forests in the Middle Atlantic States? 
In a similar way facts in spelling, language, arithmetic, etc., 
are presented. The teacher and pupil cannot go to such 
facts and ask, What is the purpose in them ? and then add. 
That purpose shall be mine in studying them. Facts have 
no purposes. They are merely available material for the 
student who uses them in the solution of problems. An 
account of the discovery of America, as such, has no pur- 
pose. A student may use the facts recorded to help him 
show how the civilized world has developed. Another 
student may use the same facts to help him show how the 
Indian race is becoming extinct. Again, the author of some 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 423 

work on history, philosophical essays, or poetry might have 
a purpose in what he presents. The student must usually 
judge of that purpose by the nature of the content, for the 
author's purpose would not be stated. It is impossible to 
ascertain whether the student judges correctly or not. To 
insist that in a given unit of subject matter there is a pur- 
pose for the student is to misuse that subject matter. 

Moreover, if such purposes were to be found in the subject 
matter studied, the student would be denied purposes of 
his own. It will be pointed out later that the student should 
come to his subject for study with purposes of his own. 
Purposes, real problems, are the inspiration for the best of 
study. Deprive a student of his own problems by deter- 
mining such in the subject matter selected by others for his 
study, and little real studying is possible. This seems an 
abuse to the student. It is so, but it is also an abuse of 
subject matter, in that its services are thus limited to prob- 
lems said to be contained. 

There is a further abuse. If the subject matter is made 
to determine the purpose for the student, the problems will 
soon become stilted and formal. If " every unit of subject 
matter has a function, which its structure is organized to 
perform," ^ that particular problem will recur as often as 
that topic appears for study. For example : A teacher is 
using Westerman's Story of Ancient Nations as a text in 
history. The problem assigned for paragraphs 238-245 is, 
" To show how Greece is at last united in an offensive policy 
against Persia by Macedon." ^ If this one problem is to 
be found in this subject matter, rather than the subject 
matter used by the student who comes to the text with his 
own problem, then that same problem will recur from year 
to year, as often as a teacher and her class come to those 

^ Charters, W. W., Methods of Teaching, page 93. 

2 Quoted by Hall-Quest, A. L., Supervised Study, page 272. 



424 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

eight paragraphs. This means a serious abuse of those 
paragraphs in this stereotyped use and also in the limitations 
to this one problem. 

Effect of such emphasis. The foregoing discussion readily 
leads to this principle : The more emphasis is placed upon 
subject matter, the less attention is given to the pupils. Practice 
in the traditional school seems clearly to place more impor- 
tance upon the subject matter studied than upon the boys 
and girls who are to do the studying. Racial experience 
has shaped the school studies. It then seems the work of 
teachers to shape boys and girls to those studies. Modern 
theory is, of course, against this and in favor of adjusting 
school work to the children who come to school with real 
problems. But practice lags behind theory. 

THE EMPHASIS UPON METHOD 

The problem of method. Emphasis upon subject matter 
gives rise to the problem of method. It is simply this : 
Racial experience expressed abstractly in the form of the 
traditional school subjects does not strongly appeal to the 
modern boy and girl. Pupils do not " take to " these studies 
as ducks to water. But if those responsible for school in- 
struction insist that the traditional subjects be studied by 
modern pupils, ways and means of inducing them to study 
must be devised. " The problem of method was conceived 
as the problem of the adaptation of an individual mind to a 
foreign subject matter; as an affair of bringing together 
two things that naturally and intrinsically have nothing 
to do with each other." ^ The traditional curriculum, if 
correctly described earlier in this chapter, is " foreign sub- 
ject matter " to the pupils, arithmetic as a statement of the 
generalizations of quantitative experience, and grammar as 

^ Dewey, J., in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, article " Method." 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 425 

a statement of the principles of language structure have not 
been a part of the real experience of children. Such sub- 
jects are so foreign to the out-of-school life of pupils that 
teachers must resort to method to unite child-mind and 
subject matter. 

Good evidence of the presence of this problem of method 
is readily found in teachers' meetings, in teachers' con- 
ferences with supervisors, in educational publications. This 
evidence is simply the great amount of attention given to 
the perplexing questions of how to teach this topic and that 
subject. Circumstances seem to drive teachers to such in- 
quiries and such studies. 

General methods. Various general methods have been 
set forth. Each in its time and place has appeared as a 
general method. (1) " From the simple to the complex " is 
one of these pedagogical advices intended to help both the 
young teacher and the younger pupil. For example, the 
sickle is a simple instrument, while the modern reaper is 
complex. Instruction as to the use of the sickle should be 
given before pupils are taught anything of our modern 
means of harvesting. (2) " From the concrete to the ab- 
stract " is another of these methods that ring so true but are 
so misleading. For example, on a Monday morning the 
teacher faces the fifth grade class in arithmetic. The lesson 
is upon the principle : the percentage is equal to the base 
multiplied by the rate per cent. The pupils read the state- 
ment and do not understand it. The teacher recognizes 
the difficulty and intends to approach the problem through 
what is assumed to be concrete. The attention of the pupils 
is called to the practice of some merchants who allow their 
customers five per cent off for cash. This five-hundredths, 
or five cents on the dollar, paves the way to a principle, 
thereafter regarded as understood. (3) " From the known 
to the unknown " is essentially the principle of apperception. 



4^6 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

and is generally accepted as the inductive method of in- 
struction. This inductive method has been widely used. 
The method is sufficiently inclusive to provide for various 
forms. The Herbartian " five steps " is one of the most 
frequently used plans/ and is considered the natural mode 
of learning for the pupil and therefore the best method of 
teaching for the instructor. The leading emphasis in these 
five steps is generally placed upon the first one, viz., prep- 
aration. One author goes so far as to say, " Indeed 
there is hardly a single recitation which should not start 
with a brief review or a few questions to freshen up in 
the minds of the pupils the points related to the coming 
lesson. Not only will this insure that the lessons them- 
selves shall be better understood, but the entire subject will 
in this way come to possess a unity instead of consisting 
of a series of more or less disconnected lessons in the mind 
of the child." ^ 

Other general methods may be merely named : the de- 
ductive method, the analytic method, the incidental method, 
the developing method, the topical method, the " telling," 
lecture, or supplemental method. This does not complete 
the list of general methods conscientiously used by hun- 
dreds of teachers. 

These methods are not mutually exclusive and it is doubt- 
ful if those who use them or perhaps even those who discuss 
them are able to make clear distinctions between them. 
But one purpose is common to all teachers and to those who 
seek to expound these methods. That purpose is this : 
to provide a means of " bringing together two things that 
naturally and intrinsically have nothing to do with each 
other," that is, pupil and school subjects. 

J McMurry, C. A. and F. M., The Method of the Recitation; De Garmo, 
Charles, Essentials of Method. 

^ Betts, G. H., The Recitation, page 32. 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 427 

Special methods.^ Under the guidance of this same pur- 
pose and usually in a conscious attempt to follow one of the 
general methods, teachers resort to special methods in the 
various subjects. In primary reading, for example, the 
alphabet, word, and sentence methods have had their day. 
Other methods used are phonic method, phonetic method, 
synthetic sound method (Pollard), rational method (Ward), 
and comprehensive method (Gordon). In geography are 
used the observational method, journey method, type 
method, map-drawing method, and topical method. These 
special methods in various subjects are without limit. 
They become greatly modified by various teachers. What- 
ever be the changes made, they are all for the one common 
purpose, and no other than that for the general methods : 
an effort to induce boys and girls to study what by nature 
they are indisposed to study. 

Devices. The general and special methods alone or com- 
bined have proved inadequate for the realization of teachers* 
purposes in securing satisfactory application on the part of 
pupils to their school work. Special methods have been 
planned to supplement the general methods. The next step 
is that of supplementing the special methods by devices. 
" Teaching devices are usually characterized by their pe- 
culiar fitness to particular situations. They are ingenious 
in their simplicity, readily comprehensible, and easily 
managed by teachers ; . . ." ^ The " gingerbread method " 
of teaching reading, attributed to the German teacher 
Basedow, is a good illustration not only of the device but of 
the occasion for such a device. He discovered, as most 
teachers do, the diflSculty of inducing pupils to apply them- 

^ For description and discussion of representative methods of reading, 
see Reeder, R. R., The Historical Development of School Readers and of 
Methods in Teaching Reading; Huey, E. B., The Psychology and Pedagogy 
of Reading; Klapper, Paul, Teaching Children to Read. 

2 Suzzallo, H., in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, 



428 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

selves readily to the study of the so-called elements of 
reading. In the face of this problem Basedow recalled the 
strong appetites of children and their taste for gingerbread. 
How natural then that slabs of gingerbread should be made 
with the alphabet impressed upon them ! This procedure is 
described by an English writer : 

To Master John the English maid 

A horn book gives of gingerbread. 

And that the child may learn the better, 

As he can name, he eats the letter. 

Proceeding thus with vast delight 

He spells and gnaws from left to right.^ 

The New England Primer was itself a device. " Easy 
syllables for children " are presented ; first arranged with 
the vowels as initial letters, e.g., 

ab eb ib ob ub 



ac 


ec 


ic 


oc 


uc 


ad 


ed 


id 


od 


ud 



This arrangement is followed by one in which the con- 
sonants lead, e.g., 

ba be bi bo bu 



ca 


ce 


ci 


CO 


cu 


da 


de 


di 


do 


du 



A few pages later the alphabet is presented by the use of 
rime and picture combined, e.g.. 

In Adam's fall 
We sinned all. 

A Dog will bite 
A Thief at Night. 

Zaccheus he 

Did Climb the Tree 

His Lord to see. 

* Quoted by Reeder, R. R., The Historical Development of School Readers 
and of Methods in Teaching Reading, page 64. 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 429 

Each of these rimes is accompanied by a little picture illus- 
trating it. 

Diacritical marks are used in many schools as a device 
to help pupils get a start in reading. These marks are soon 
forgotten by most pupils and are not later used except 
when reference is made to the dictionary. 

In elementary number work many devices are used. The 
abacus, as now used, is a device, though various peoples 
have used this instrument much as the adding machine is 
now used as a means of securing speed and accuracy. Not 
long ago a teacher in the Buffalo schools published (privately) 
a book entitled The Multiplication Chant and Gesture Drill. 
She evidently recognized the difficulty of teaching pupils 
the multiplication tables and resorted to rime and gesture. 

Nine times nine are eighty-one ; 
Light and heat come from the sun. 

The author's directions are : 

" (a) In an erect standing position repeat : 

' Once one is one.' 

" (6) Turn fully to the left on the word ' light.' 

" (c) Raise hands and eyes on the words * and heat.' 

" {d) Finish rhyme in same position. 

" (e) Proceed with each rhyme in a similar way." 

Other rimes and gestures are given for all the tables. 

Four times seven are twenty-eight. 
A cup of hemlock was Socrates' fate. 

Five times five are twenty-five. 
The telephone Edison did contrive. 

Illustrated Arithmetic ^ was prepared for pupils who found 
mathematical work " stupidly uninteresting and hard to 

1 By Colwell, L. W., published by H. M. Dixon & Co. 



430 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

comprehend." The author found his device in lines, rec- 
tangles, cubes, and oblong solids " freely handled, divided, 
and assembled so as to exhibit the primary number values 
in clear and adequate form and in a refreshing variety of 
ways." 

It is needless here to note more of these devices, however 
interesting and even amusing they may be. And the 
schools are full of devices similar to those given above. A 
further examination of devices leads to the generalization 
that teachers resort to such means in teaching those elements 
in the traditional curriculum which are farthest removed from 
the commonplace experience of the pupils. Thus it is by 
reason of the great gap between the pupil's experience and 
the subject matter presented that resort is taken to in- 
genious devices. The device is extensively used and quite 
generally approved. But a close analysis of the device, 
the situation in which it is used, and the effect of its con- 
tinued use convinces one that it is at most a temporary 
expedient. It is a " gingerbread method." Its use is a 
serious reflection upon the nature of the subject matter 
presented; it means that the subject matter is not suited 
to the pupil in his present stage of development. In her 
anxiety over the immediate effects upon the pupil and by 
reason of not being trained to analyze more carefully the 
situation, the teacher quickly uses such devices as are avail- 
able. The use of devices thus undermines professional 
teaching. Teaching is degraded to the mechanics of school 
keeping. The real trouble lies in the nature of the subject 
matter. 

Principle. The foregoing discussion leads to this prin- 
ciple: The more inappropriate the subject matter, the more 
emphasis must he placed on the methods used. 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 431 

THE EMPHASIS UPON MOTIVE 

Motive as an advance over method. Methods ^ and 
devices may be used as means of inducing response among 
the lower animals. They are used also in school as a means 
of influencing pupils. 

The closer student of school work, especially the one 
more deeply interested in child welfare, is turning his atten- 
tion more to children's motives as the force which produces 
effective response. In the section above, special method 
was pointed out as a supplement to general method; and 
the device was used as a very special expedient when the 
special method was inadequate. But the close observer of 
school work notes that artful methods and ingenious devices 
are not always effective. Motive is recognized as a great 
force in industrial and social life. Effort is effective when 
rightly motivated. And the motives of pupils are being 
more carefully studied as the effective forces in school work. 
It is in this sense that motive is here presented as an advance 
over devices and methods. 

It seems unnecessary to define the term " motive," 
though without some comment misunderstanding is likely 
to arise. The term is prominent in our pedagogical vocabu- 
lary and is generally understood. Motive is closely allied 
to interest and to purpose. It expresses the attitude of an 
individual toward what he foresees. There is probably 
less danger of disagreement as to the meaning of motive 
than of disagreement as to its use. Motivation of school 
work is a prominent theme in recent educational discussions. 
Some differences of opinion have been expressed as to what 
subjects in the curriculum most need motivating, and as to 
when and how such motivation shall be provided. Scarcely 

1 It is not the intention here to imply that method has no place in the 
better forms of school work. Reference is to the prevalent schoolroom 
methods, so kin to devices. 



432 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

a question has been raised as to a possible mistaken notion 
as to the relations of real motives and school work. 

Misuse of motives. The situation seems to be essentially 
this : in real life the business man is prompted to reach his 
office punctually, to attend to his clerical details carefully 
but with dispatch, to handle his business effectively. His 
motive — his interest and his purpose — seems to be an 
impelling and directing force. School men and teachers 
recognize a kindred motive force in boys and girls of school 
age. They see them interested in children's activities. 
They note the purposes that guide these children in much 
of their out-of-school life. They see how efficient children 
are in applying themselves to the commonplace activities 
of children. And it is all so natural. The impelling force 
comes from within the child, is not imposed upon him by 
an adult. In school there is apparently a marked difference. 
But now, instead of resorting to methods and devices, an 
effort is made to motivate the work to be done. That is, 
arithmetic, geography, and language must be motivated. 
The study of these school subjects is recognized as work to 
which pupils do not come, normally, with strong motives. 
The teacher tacitly accepts the usual school subjects as 
material that must be taught to her pupils and she straight- 
way sets herself to the task of securing motives for the 
pupils that will lead them to apply themselves to their school 
tasks. The motives secured are those which impel and 
direct children in their outdoor activities. To such fields 
of experience, then, the teacher looks. Children play games, 
and no one questions the strong and natural motives that 
guide them. To this motive in play an appeal is made. 
Note one illustration — in the teaching of reading. " The 
Express-train reading trip — The aim is to see how quickly 
the class, participating individually in turn, as each new 
word is pointed to, can review from the chart or blackboard 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 433 

the entire word list they have mastered." ^ The teacher 
either assumes or pretends that this is a game to be played 
by the pupils. It is almost certain that no normal-minded 
child would so consider it. But even if, in comparison with 
other methods of reading, these pupils accept this for the 
time as a game, the exercise will not continue long before 
the pupils recognize that reading is the teachers' object for 
them, not playing at all. It appears as if an attempt had 
been made to fool the children into doing what they were not 
disposed to do, by getting them to do what, under normal 
circumstances, they would be greatly pleased to do. 

A very different manner of motivating school work is to 
create a situation in which a pupil will be practically forced 
to do what the teacher wishes. For example : In dis- 
missing the primary class a teacher may say to her pupils, 
" Follow the directions I place on the board." She then 
writes, rise, face, pass. If the teacher were dumb or the 
pupils deaf that method of dismissal would be natural. 
Under the usual circumstances it is strictly artificial and 
virtually deteriorates into a formal device though based 
upon a real motive. 

Real life is looked to for motives. The school bank has 
been used, and under normal conditions what strong motives 
boys and girls would have in banking for themselves. But 
how artificial when finding the percentage, base, and rate, 
as work in arithmetic, is taught by comparing the individual 
sums deposited with the total sums in the bank ; when the 
decimal point introduced in the third grade is taught by the 
use of deposit slips ! ^ 

Pedagogical writings and schoolroom practices allow 
considerable prominence to " motivation " of the character 
of the three illustrations given. Those who have thus at- 

1 Wilson, H. B. and G. M., The Motivation of School Work, page 65. 

2 Ibid., page 177. 



434 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

tempted to motivate the traditional school subjects recog- 
nize, on the one hand, how strongly and naturally the normal 
experiences of children are motivated; and, on the other 
hand, how difficult is the task of inducing pupils to apply 
themselves to the traditional school work. The motivation 
usually advocated and so generally used does secure an 
increase in responsiveness of the pupils, but this response is, 
in consequence, unnatural and forced. 

To secure motives in this way from various phases of 
children's normal experience as the teachers' instrument to 
induce reaction in school work in accordance with the 
teachers' desires is a very definite reflection upon the nature 
of subject matter which the pupils are asked to study. To 
make use of motives foreign to the subject matter itself is 
only an admission that the subject matter is not immediately 
appropriate for the pupils. It is quite noticeable that those 
who motivate arithmetic, geography, and others of the 
traditional subjects do not attempt to motivate manual 
training, agriculture, athletic events, playing games, etc., 
in the same manner. The conspicuous motives for work 
in manual training shops, agriculture, and commercial studies 
are found in the natural results of such activities : e.g., the 
writing desk made in the shop, the money received from farm 
products raised, the salary for office work. These results 
are really the normal motives that lead people into such 
activities. In reality these subjects do not need motivating. 
In the work itself pupils have genuine motives. 

There is another type of activity often provided in the 
school under the name of " motivating school work." A 
fair is arranged or a school paper is published. In the 
process, " The apparent object always was to raise money 
to finance some project . . . ," but "... if the work and 
machinery of executing such projects do not become ob- 
jectionable, interfering seriously with the regular work of 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 435 

the school, the principal and teachers were primarily inter- 
ested in each fair because it was the source of an almost 
countless number of opportunities for relating the home 
and the school and for motivating the children's school 
work." ^ In a number of schools the school paper is allowed 
a place, not on the same basis as the public newspaper, 
but for the purpose of " the gains to the regular work of 
the school from preparing and issuing a school paper." ^ 
The fair and the school paper are only two examples taken 
from many out-of-school activities which are allowed ad- 
mission to the school only because they serve, primarily, 
to motivate other studies. 

It may safely be said that where the motive is not foreign 
to the subject matter, such subject matter is appropriate 
to the pupil ; but when the motive for work in one subject 
must be found in quite a foreign subject, then that subject 
matter is questionable. Objection to this position is made 
on the ground that school work must be to a high degree 
artificial, and that genuine motives, therefore, would not 
be possible. A child does not take medicine with the same 
motives that lead him to eat bread and milk. Medicine is 
artificial and is sometimes necessary, but the subject matter 
of schools should not be as medicine, to be taken with such 
unnatural motives, except in special cases. 

To use motives foreign to the subject matter itself is 
usually to abuse such motives. As pointed out above, the 
motives to which appeal is usually made are found in the 
normal activities of children. It is an abuse of these 
activities to use them to induce activities not normal for 
children. 

Here, again, the trouble lies in the antiquated curriculum. 
Tacitly accept the traditional curriculum as something which 

1 Wilson, H. B. and G. M., The Motivation of School Work, page 221. 
^ Ibid., page 236. 



436 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

must be taught to children, and much of it must be moti- 
vated through the use of extraneous subject matter. 

The source of real motive. Pupils who study arithmetic 
which has been motivated by a game, for example, are work- 
ing under artificial motives, that is, artificial for the time. 
Real motives come in the course of normal experience. 
There is no occasion to motivate a fishing trip for twelve- 
year-old boys. The disposition to go when opportunity 
offers is readily recognized in the boy as soon as circum- 
stances make that going possible. A boy's normal experi- 
ences in real life are seldom without their own motivation. 
In the case of a boy's not wishing to do what his parents or 
teachers bid, a firm command has probably a more immediate 
effect and the discipline is probably much more wholesome 
than to proceed indirectly through extraneous motivation. 
It must be admitted that the traditional course of study 
has not the motivation that is found in the usual out-of-school 
experiences of youth. This only means that more suitable 
subject matter is needed. Motives are recognized in real 
life and should govern the subject matter to be taught. 

Motive served by subject matter. Instead of finding 
motives by which pupils may be led to study arithmetic, 
subject matter should be found that will enable the pupils 
to realize the motives that they have. Electric lighting of 
the streets in town interests the boy, and his motive in 
studying more fully this aspect of his own environment 
must be realized by the use of such arithmetical work as 
quantitative phases of this problem involve. Usual school- 
room policy should be reversed : genuine motives should be 
served by suitable subject matter rather than motives found 
to serve stereotyped subject matter. Racial experience 
has supplied us with a great quantity of subject matter, 
expressed in terms of the traditional course of study. It has 
become the custom in schools to follow that organization 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 437 

of subject matter. To give this up seems to many an im- 
possibility. On the other hand, so much is taking place 
in the form of social and industrial activities, so much of 
biological and physical phenomena, that boys and girls are 
richly supplied with studies and activities highly motivated ; 
and this simply because young people are concerned with 
events that directly affect their own well-being. There is much 
in the traditional subject matter that will serve in realizing 
such motives. 

Incidental instruction in incidentals. In real life, the 
multiplication tables, the construction of sentences, the 
spelling of words, are incidental to the work of the bank 
clerk, the manufacturer, the laborer. The Three R's are 
mere tools, useful indeed, but only subordinate instruments 
in the activities carried out. The traditional school has 
given prominence to instruction in these incidentals. The 
life activities in which these subjects are used have received 
only passing notice. They have been appealed to largely 
as sources of motivation to quicken the indifferent pupil. 
Reverse the relation. Place the emphasis of instruction 
on the real experiences of out-of-school life and the Three-R 
subject matter will function normally. The best way to 
teach arithmetic is not to teach arithmetic as such, but to 
teach experiences in which arithmetical operations function. 
The electric-lighting system in a town is already strongly 
motivated for most young people. To study this at all 
adequately much arithmetical work must be done. Care 
must be taken to select arithmetical work only as is required 
by the lighting problem and not, as is often done, to revert 
to a study of the lighting system as a point of application 
for certain aspects of the arithmetic being studied. 

Principle. This discussion leads to an important prin- 
ciple : The more normal the pupils' motives and the more 
appropriate the subject matter, the less is the need of method. 



438 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

_ Motives of pupils in their out-of-school life should guide 
in school work. These include a wide range of the world 
of events. These events are the real subject matter to be 
studied. The formalities of the traditional Three R's are 
incidental. Teachers and pupils are thus relieved of the 
perplexing problems of methods and devices. But teachers 
and school officials (parents, too, may be included) are so in 
the habit of occupying themselves with formal school arts 
and an artificially motivated method of teaching and learn- 
ing that they are afraid to intrust themselves and the 
school work fully to the normal occupations and the normal 
motives of children. The principle advocated in the latter 
part of this chapter insists that effective school work is 
dependent upon the recognition of the normal motives of 
children and the selection of subject matter appropriate to 
those motives. 

Supplementary Readings 

Adams, J. Primer on Teaching. 
Baglet, W. C. Classroom Management. 

The Educative Process. 

Betts, G. H. The Recitation. 
Charters, W. W. Methods of Teaching. 
De Garmo, C. The Essentials of Method. 
James, W. Talks to Teachers, pages 91-99. 

Kern, O. J. Among Country Schools, Chapters III, IV, VII, VIII, XIV. 
McMtjrry, F. M. Elementary School Standards. 

Method of the Recitation. 

Roofer, T. G. A Pot of Green Feathers, Preface. 

Strayer, G. D. a Brief Course in the Teaching Process, pages 32-113. 
Strayer, G. D., and Norsworthy, NAO\a. How to Teach, pages 34-54. 
The Social Motive in School Work, Francis W. Parker School Year Book, 

1912. 
Thorndike, E. L. The Principles of Teaching, pages 21-41, 51-67. 
WiLBON, H. B. and G. M. The Motivation of School Work. 



MATERIAL, METHOD, MOTIVE 439 

General References 

Dewet, J. Interest as Related to Will. 

The Child and the Curriculum. 

Interest and Effort in Education. 

Democracy and Education, pages 146-162, 193-227, 

Fbeeland, G. E. Modern Elementary School Practice. 
HalltQuest, a. L. Supervised Study. 
MoNTESSOBi, M. The Montessori Method. 

Pakkee, S. C. Methods of Teaching in High Schools. 
Bapeeb, L. W. Teaching Elementary School Subjects. 



Statement Outline for Chapter Nineteen 

Measurement of school work has become a prominent educational 
problem. 

The recent scientific movement asks for exactness in measure- 
ment. 
The contents of this chapter are : 

A brief report on the work at the University Elementary 

School ; 
A brief criticism of current measurements ; 
A suggestion for measuring in terms of real life. 
School work is measured in terms of school work. 

The prevailing custom is to test in terms of school arts. 
Customary tests are wrongly applied to new ventures. 
Pupils who leave the University Elementary School do better 

than the average in public schools. 
Pupils who graduate from the University Elementary School 
do better in high school work than do those of traditional 
training. 
Measurement in terms of school work falls short of measurement 
needed for social service. 

In common practice, measurement goes no further than the 

schoolroom. 
The wrong thing is measured : school arts rather than the life 

acts. 
Such measurement leads to a wrong purpose in studying and 
teaching. 
Measurement should be made in terms of life out of school. 

The thing to be measured is the effect of school life upon com- 
munity life. 
Two principles are suggested : 

Measurement should be made only when abilities are 

fimctioning in normal life ; 
Measurement should be in terms of normal experience. 
Objection to the personal equation involved is not serious. 
Records of readings illustrate the measurement suggested. 



440 



CHAPTER NINETEEN 

Educational Measurements 
the problem of measurement 

The scientific movement. In recent yea*rs a tidal wave of 
enthusiasm over " standard tests " has flooded the school 
world. The scientific educator is using these tests as instru- 
ments for measuring the educational product of the schools. 
While these scientific tests are in progress the traditional 
examinations in school subjects maintain about the same 
prominence they have held for generations. And in the 
meantime the general judgment of the community and of 
individuals is being passed upon the work of the schools 
just as has been done for centuries. These traditional 
examinations are conducted presumably in a somewhat 
scientific manner : grades are assigned according to rather 
definite rules; averages are computed with much attention 
to accuracy ; records and reports are made with care. 
Teachers believe in these records as a reliable expression of 
the results of the work of the school. Pupils place utmost 
confidence in these records as a measurement of their progress. 
The community, too, accepts these school reports as though 
error could not be made in them. And yet this community, 
when neither face to face with school officials nor influenced 
by school environment, discusses the school work largely 
in terms of good or bad, better or worse, satisfactory or 
unsatisfactory, with little or no reference to the more exact 
measurements in terms of grades. 

The recent scientific movement in education is intended 
to substitute for the loose and inaccurate judgment of the 
community a more exact and definite basis for measurement 
and to improve upon the traditional but heterogeneous 
methods used in the schools by establishing certain standards 

441 



442 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

applicable to all schools. The student of education readily 
recognizes that the parent or community is very liable to 
serious error in judging offhand that Mr. Brown is a much 
better teacher than Mr. Smith ; or that the fifth grade is 
doing much better in arithmetic than was done last year. 
Further, when the attention of teachers and parents is 
called to the heterogeneous grading systems used, they 
understand the indefiniteness of the grades and the futility 
of making any comparisons between two groups of pupils or 
even between individuals. The recent scientific movement 
to improve upon these traditional practices is most welcome. 
However, a serious question must be raised, not as to the 
scientific method employed, but as to the school product 
measured by this scientific method. No adequate discussion 
of this question is attempted in this chapter. 

Limitations in this chapter. The contents of this chapter 
are limited to : (1) a report upon results of work at the Uni- 
versity Elementary School in terms of high school work; 
(2) a brief criticism of measuring school products in terms 
of school subjects; (3) a statement, with one illustration, 
of a plan proposed for measuring school work in terms of 
life out of school. The report upon the work of pupils 
trained in this University Elementary School is given as 
one means of substantiating the plan proposed in this 
volume of substituting for the traditional Three R's in the 
elementary school a curriculum strictly in terms of life out 
of school. " By their fruits ye shall know them." The work 
of this school for the past ten years has been an experiment. 
The value of this experiment as a suggestion for improving 
the traditional schools must be judged more by actual 
results than by the theory, however plausible that theory 
may be. The plan for measuring school work in terms of 
life out of school is briefly outlined in this chapter as the 
natural means of measurement and as the only acceptable 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 443 

basis for judging the work done in the University Elementary 
School or in any school instituted for the equipment of the 
young for their life work in a real democracy. 

MEASUREMENT IN TERMS OF SCHOOL WORK 

Prevailing custom. Pupils in the grades are usually 
tested in terms of the work done in the school. The question 
is : How capable are the pupils in reading, writing, arith- 
metic, etc. ? School work has been done in these subjects, 
largely, for the immediate purpose of acquiring ability 
in the formal exercises in these subjects. The tests are 
applied to discover to what extent the purpose of the schools 
is being realized. Even in some schools where the purpose 
is stated as that of preparation for practical life, but where 
the Three R's prevail as the chief subjects for study, the 
tests for results are in terms of what is evidently the more 
immediate purpose, viz., ability in these schoolroom arts. 

Customary tests applied to new ventures. "Of course, 
judging an educational experiment by the pupil's ability 
to ' keep up ' with the system the experiment is trying to 
improve, is of very little value." ^ And yet this is exactly 
what takes place. The community, largely through force 
of habit, judges such an educational experiment in terms of 
the usual purpose of schools, i.e., proficiency in the common 
branches, rather than in terms of its special purpose, e.g., 
proficiency in community life. Thus the work of the 
University Elementary School will be judged, for some time 
to come, by the general public in terms which the public is 
accustomed to use, rather than in terms of the special purpose 
of this school, that of helping boys and girls do better, now 
and later, in all those wholesome activities in which they nor- 
mally engage. And this judgment of the community must be 
respected until the community has been led to judge the 
1 Dewey, J., Schools of Tomorrow, page 58. 



444 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

proJBciency of the school in terms of its avowed purpose, 
just as the proficiency of a business enterprise or an industrial 
venture is judged by its own purpose. Whether or not we 
approve of the purpose of a particular school or business 
cannot affect the basis upon which we judge its efficiency. 
It seems clear that to measure, at any set time, the abilities 
of pupils in a school with a purpose of its own by the same 
tests for which pupils of the traditional school have been 
especially trained would lead, not only to an unfair compari- 
son, but to useless evaluation of the work done.^ And yet, 
when pupils trained in this special school return to the work 
of the traditional school or advance to other schools where 
they must compete with students of traditional school 
training, comparison of work done in such schools by the 
two classes of students is a reliable means of evaluating the 
work of the special school in terms of the traditional work. 
Pupils, parents, and communities may rightly demand of 
an elementary school venturing to substitute new work for 
the traditional work that the pupils who may transfer to the 
traditional school be qualified to carry on the work there with- 
out a handicap, provided suitable time is allowed such pupils 
to adjust themselves to the new conditions. This proposition 
is in accordance with the principle discussed in Chapter 
Eight, especially that portion (pages 157-166) which em- 
pasizes efficiency now as preparation for efficiency later. 

^ In the spring of 1914 the Carnegie Foundation asked permission to apply 
to the pupils of this University Elementary School the standard tests used 
throughout the public schools, as a part of the Missouri Educational Survey 
then being made. The management of the school had not the desire to make 
the least objection, but the Carnegie Foundation was requested to accompany 
any published report of these tests by a clear statement of the purpose of this 
school. To test second-grade pupils by asking them to write what they 
remembered of a story read to them, when those pupils had had at that time 
no exercise at all in composition and no exercise in writing except in copy- 
ing, is clearly an unfair basis for comparison with second-grade pupils trained 
in that formal exercise. It is also a useless evaluation of the second-grade 
work of this special school. However, the results of these tests, when made 
public, may be very suggestive. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



445 



In examining the following reports of pupils trained in the 
University Elementary School who have gone to other 
schools, it must be borne in mind that the data are quite 
limited. The conclusions may not be so reliable as they 
would be were more cases possible. It is probable, however, 
that the number of cases is sufficient to warrant these con- 
clusions, at least until more extended studies may lead to 
contradictory results. 



TABLE X 

Percentage Distribution of Grades Received by Pupils prom the 
University Elementary School in Comparison with Those of 
Pupils in the City Schools 

Percentages in the lower line represent the city schools. 



Reading . . . . 

Writing . . . . 

Spelling . . . . 

Language . . . 

Arithmetic . . . 

Geography . . . 
History and civics 

Physiology . . . 

Drawing . . . . 

Average . . . . 

Median . . . . 





E 


S] 


M 


I 


E. 


11.1 


48.1 


40.1 


0.0 


C. 


6.0 


35.0 


37.0 


17.0 


E. 


3.7 


48.2 


44.4 


3.7 


C. 


5.1 


24.7 


52.5 


15.3 


E. 


11.1 


33.3 


33.3 


22.2 


C. 


13.0 


30.0 


32.0 


18.0 


E. 


16.0 


40.0 


40.0 


4.0 


C. 


7.3 


25.6 


36.5 


24.4 


E. 


11.1 


33.3 


33.3 


11.1 


C. 


11.0 


18.0 


30.0 


36.0 


E. 


4.1 


45.8 


37.5 


12.5 


C. 


5.8 


22.3 


44.7 


20.0 


E. 


18.7 


37.4 


37.4 


6.2 


C. 


3.7 


26.2 


41.2 


22.5 


E. 


8.3 


33.3 


50.0 


8.3 


C. 


5.3 


17.9 


44.3 


23.3 


E. 


8.0 


32.0 


56.0 


4.0 


C. 


7.0 


24.8 


58.9 


18.8 


E. 


10.7 


37.9 


41.4 


8.0 


C. 


6.6 


24.9 


41.9 


21.7 


E. 


11.1 


37.4 


40.0 


6.2 


C. 


6.0 


24.8 


41.7 


20.0 



?: 0.0 
'5.0 
0.0 
2.1 
0.0 
7.0 
0.0 
6.1 
11.1 
5.0 
0.0 
7.0 
0.0 
6.2 
0.0 
5.3 
0.0 
2.4 
1.2 
6.1 
0.0 
5.3 



446 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Pupils' work in grade schools. In the four years from 
September, 1912, to June, 1916, twenty-seven pupils with- 
drew from the University Elementary School and entered 
two ward schools of the city of Columbia. These pupils had 
had as much as one year in the University Elementary School. 
Table X presents a comparison of the grades of these pupils 
with those of the city schools.^ 

Table X may be read as follows : In the subject of reading 
in the city schools, pupils who had come from the University 
Elementary School with one or more years' work in that 
school received 11.1 per cent of their grades as E, in compari- 
son with the city school pupils, whose per cent of E grades 
was 6.0; they received 48.1 per cent of their grades as S, 
in comparison with the city school pupils, whose per cent 
of S grades was 35.0, etc. 

If previous training for one or more years contributes 
directly to the efficiency of pupils in a given work, this table 
tells a very positive story as to the effects of the training 
in the University Elementary School. The percentage of 
high grades, E's and S's, is very noticeably greater for the 
pupils from the University Elementary School, and the 
percentage of low grades, I's and F'^s, is no less conspicuously 
lower. In only three subjects, writing, spelling, and geog- 

^ The grades used are those received by the pupils in the first year only 
after entering the city schools, and to avoid any misunderstanding it should 
be stated that the grades here studied are those given by the teachers in 
the city schools. The University Elementary School gives no grades. 

Inasmuch as the office of the city schools had no data to show the dis- 
tribution of grades given by the grade teachers, a random selection of one 
hundred pupils was made from the two schools into which the twenty-seven 
pupils had gone, and the grades of these pupils for the year 1916-1917 were 
taken as representative of the distribution of grades for the city. The dis- 
tribution of the grades, E (excellent), S (superior), M (medium), I (inferior), 
F (failure), is evidently not in accordance with the normal curve expected 
in higher institutions. That is, less than 50 per cent of the grades in these 
city elementary schools are M and more than 25 per cent are the higher 
grades, S and E. This means that the city schools grade higher than sug- 
gested by the normal curve of distribution, but the comparison, in Table 
X, of two groups of pupils is not thereby disturbed. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 447 

raphy, do the pupils from the University School receive a 
lower percentage of E's than the pupils of the city schools. 
And in these subjects the sum of the percentages of E's and 
S's is, in each case, in favor of the University School pupils. 
On the basis of either averages or medians, it may be con- 
cluded that pupils from the University Elementary School 
secure one half again as many E and S grades as pupils who 
have had the traditional school training. Moreover, on the 
side of the low grades, I's and F's, the sum of the percentages 
of the two grades is in each of the nine subjects strikingly 
less for the pupils from the University School than for those 
with traditional training. Again, upon the basis of the 
averages or medians, it may be concluded that the pupils 
trained in the University School seldom receive an F grade, 
while pupils of the traditional training fail to the extent of 
one in twenty. 

The comparatively few low grades received by pupils 
from the University Elementary School do not need explana- 
tion. Two facts, however, may be stated. The 11.1 per 
cent of the grades in arithmetic which are F's were made 
by three pupils who were not promoted the preceding year 
at the University School. Also, of all the I's made nearly 
one half (four ninths) were made by pupils who in the pre- 
ceding year at the University School had done such poor 
work in the varied activities of the school that they could 
not be promoted. 

It might be thought by some that, even including those who 
failed of promotion referred to in the preceding paragraph, 
the pupils who transferred from the University School to 
the city schools and there did such superior work were the 
better ones from that school. Table XI shows that such was 
not the case. Grades are not used at this University School, 
but on each pupil's record card (filed in the office but not 
shown to the pupil) is indicated his rank in the class in which 



448 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

he studied. This rank is recorded at the close of each half 
year. Table XI shows in columns A and X the rankings 
of the twenty-seven pupils in the various classes in which 
they studied ; ^ in columns B and Y the number of pupils 
in those classes; and in columns C and Z the amounts of 
deviation above and below the middle of each class. Thus 
this table may be read: one pupil ranks seventh in his 
class of nineteen pupils. The pupil ranking tenth is con- 
sidered at the middle of that class, and the pupil ranking 
seventh is three units better than the middle one.^ In the 
X, Y, Z group, one pupil ranks eighteenth in a class of 
twenty. The real middle of this class is ten and one half. 
Thus this pupil ranks seven and one half units below the 
middle. 

This table thus shows that of the fifty rankings, twenty- 
six are among the poorer halves of the classes in which they 
studied, and twenty-four among the better halves. Here 
is an indication that the twenty-seven pupils were very 
slightly below the median of the classes in the University 
School. 

This table also shows that of the 198 units of deviation 
above and below the middle of the classes, 94^ units are 
below and 103^ are above. This indicates that the better 
ones of these twenty-seven pupils very slightly overbalance 
the poorer ones, and on this basis one might claim that the 
twenty-seven pupils were slightly above the median of 
pupils in the University School. 

1 The explanation for fifty rankings instead of fifty-four is found in the 
fact that rankings for four pupils were not recorded in one semester. 

^ This ranking is on the assumption that the degrees of difference between 
any two pupils are the same. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



449 



TABLE XI 

DiSTHIBUTION OF TwENTT-SEVEN PuPILS AMONG THE BeTTER AND PoOKEB 

Halves of the Classes in Which They Studied 



A 


B 


C 


X 


Y 


Z 


Rank of 
Pupil 


Pupils in 
THE Group 


Unit Devia- 
tion ABOVE 
Middle 


Rank of 
Pupil 


Pupils in 
THE Group 


Unit Devia- 
tion below 
Middle 


7 


19 


3 


18 


20 


71 


5 


10 


i 


13 


19 


3 


7 


19 


3 


11 


20 


h 


3 


13 


4 


6 


10 


h 


5 


12 


u 


7 


10 


11 


5 


13 


2 


8 


12 


11 


2 


20 


81 


12 


20 


11 


1 


19 


9 


19 


20 


81 


7 


19 


3 


13 


19 


3 


6 


13 


1 


8 


12 


u 


7 


20 


3J 


11 


12 


4^ 


3 


19 


7 


13 


20 


2^ 


8 


18 


11 


11 


19 


1 


2 


19 


8 


11 


19 


1 


2 


18 


7^ 


14 


20 


31 


7 


20 


3^ 


10 


18 


i 


5 


18 


H 


16 


19 


6 


2 


16 


6^ 


18 


18 


81 


3 


15 


5 


11 


19 


1 


8 


20 


n 


17 


18 


7^ 


9 


18 


h 


17 


17 


8 


5 


16 


31 


16 


20 


5i 


2 


18 


n 


16 


18 


64 


2 


17 


7 


13 


14 


5\ 








10 
11 


13 
19 


3 


24 rankings in the better half of the 


1 


classes, with 103| units of deviation 




above the middle. 


26 rankings in the poorer half of 




the classes, with 94| units of deviation 




below the middle. 



Pupils' work in high schools. However plausible the 
theory and practice of the proposed change in the elementary 



450 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

school curriculum may seem, the question readily arises : 
How well will these pupils do their work in the traditional 
high school if they have not had the usual drill in the common 
branches? A preliminary study of this question was pre- 
sented in The Journal of Educational Psychology for June, 
1915, under the title, " How Well May Pupils Be Prepared for 
High School Work without Studying Arithmetic, Grammar, 
etc., in the Grades? " Since that time additional data, suffi- 
cient to justify more positive conclusions, have been secured. 

During the eleven years, 1907 to 1917 inclusive, one 
hundred pupils graduated from the University Elementary 
School and entered one of two high schools. Inasmuch as 
this school opened in 1905, it is clear that the graduates 
of the first few years had only the upper grade work in this 
school. But all graduates of the school from the beginning 
to the class of 1917 are considered in this study. (On 
pages 454-456 the relative standing of those who had longer 
and those who had shorter time in this school is considered.) 
No attention is here given to those who graduated but did 
not take up high school work, or attended high schools 
other than the two here considered. Of these one hundred 
pupils, fifty-five entered the Columbia City High School, 
and forty-five entered the University High School. 

Table XII is derived from grades made by the fifty-five 
students entering the Columbia City High School. These 
grades include all grades made by these students to the close 
of the year 1917-1918. As a basis for comparison the 
distribution of grades for the City High School was obtained 
by taking all the grades, 1701 in number, given by all the 
teachers during the year 1916-1917.^ 

^ This distribution was taken as fairly representative for the school. 
But it was an exceptional year in some respects, inasmuch as no E grades 
were given that year in mathematics or German. Here may be found 
explanation for the apparent error in Table XII showing the percentage 
of E grades in mathematics and German. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



451 



TABLE XII 

Percentage Distribution of Grades Received bt Graduates of the 
University Elementary School in Later Years as Students in 
THE Columbia City High School, in Comparison with the Dis- 
tribution THROUGHOUT THE HiGH ScHOOL 

Percentages in the lower line, C, represent the distribution of grades of 
the city school. 







E 


S 


M 


I 


F 


English 


E. 


4.5 


30.9 


46.2 


16.0 


2.3 




C. 


2.7 


27.7 


38.3 


23.8 


7.2 


Latin . 


E. 


4.1 


59.2 


21.6 


8.2 


6.9 




C. 


3.1 


29.1 


30.1 


19.0 


18.5 


German 


E. 


2.8 


49.0 


33.5 


11.8 


2.8 




C. 


0.0 


26.6 


35.0 


26.6 


11.6 


History 


E. 


3.1 


35.9 


43.3 


12.5 


4.8 




C. 


2.3 


27.2 


51.7 


14.5 


4.1 


Mathematics 


E. 


2.9 


39.1 


30.6 


18.9 


8.4 




C. 


0.0 


22.9 


24.9 


29.3 


22.6 


Science, manual training, etc. 


E. 


3.3 


21.4 


65.9 


9.3 


0.0 




C. 


5.8 


31.2 


53.4 


8.3 


0.2 


Average 


E. 


3.4 


39.2 


40.2 


12.8 


4.2 




C. 


2.3 


27.5 


38.9 


20.3 


10.7 


Median 


E. 


3.2 


37.5 


38.4 


12.1 


3.8 




C. 


2.5 


27.4 


36.6 


21.4 


9.4 



This table clearly indicates that the pupils trained in the 
University Elementary School are equal to carrying the 
traditional work of a public high school. Irrespective of 
any comparison with the standard set by the city school, 
it is easily read in the table that pupils from the University 
Elementary School get many high grades and comparatively 
few low grades. But the most satisfactory measure here is 
that by which comparison is made with the work of students 
with quite a different previous training. The comparison 



452 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

is strikingly in favor of the graduates of the University 
Elementary School. This favorable comparison is especially 
interesting in the two subjects where the gravest doubts have 
been entertained, English and mathematics. This situation 
indicates that grammar and arithmetic in the grades are not 
essential as preparation for English and mathematics in the 
high school. The Latin grammar is mastered without a 
preliminary study of the English grammar. 

Table XIII shows a similarly favorable comparison for the 
forty-five graduates of the University Elementary School 
who entered the University High School, A comparison 
of Tables XII and XIII will show that in the University 
High School a larger percentage of the grades are E's, and 
a lower percentage are I's and F's than in the City High 
School. If we accept this distribution of grades as a basis 
for comparison, it appears that the students in the University 
High School, all together, are intellectually stronger than 
those in the city school. This is probably the case, as these 
students are on the average three or four years older and 
they come to this school from all parts of the state with 
higher motives for study than are usual with students attend- 
ing their own City High School. This situation might 
thus mean that the graduates of the University Elementary 
School must in the University High School meet stronger 
competitors than do those graduates who attend the City 
High School. But in spite of this situation the graduates 
of the University Elementary School maintain a higher rank 
in the University High School than they do in the City High 
School. 

Again, it may be noted that these graduates do especially 
well in English and mathematics, without having had 
grammar and arithmetic in the Elementary School. The 
percentage of high grades is high and the percentage of low 
grades is very low. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



453 



TABLE XIII 

Percentage Distribution of Grades Received bt Graduates of the 
University Elementary School in Later Years as Students in 
the University High School, in Comparison with the Distribu- 
tion THROUGHOUT THIS HiGH SCHOOL 

Percentages in the lower line, U, represent the distribution of grades 
in the University High School 



English 

Latin 

German 

History 

Mathematics 

Sciences, manual training, etc. 

Average 

Median 





E 


S 


M 


I 


E. 


15.7 


28.1 


43.9 


12.S 


U. 


7.2 


20.2 


43.3 


24.0 


E. 


24.3 


37.1 


31.4 


7.1 


U. 


14.2 


23.8 


41.2 


17.6 


E. 


21.5 


32.3 


35.4 


10.7 


U. 


10.7 


21.4 


50.7 


12.3 


E. 


11.2 


27.6 


46.6 


13.8 


U. 


8.5 


20.9 


52.3 


14.0 


E. 


16.8 


21.5 


55.1 


5.6 


U. 


8.5 


19.0 


52.5 


15.8 


E. 


8.1 


21.6 


58.1 


12.1 


U. 


6.7 


19.2 


64.7 


7.3 


E. 


16.3 


28.7 


45.1 


10.3 


U. 


9.1 


20.7 


50.8 


15.1 


E. 


16.2 


27.9 


45.3 


11.4 


U. 


8.0 


20.3 


51.5 


14.9 



0.0 
5.3 
0.0 
3.1 
0.0 
4.6 
0.8 
3.8 
0.9 
4.4 
0.0 
2.1 
0.3 
3.9 
0.0 
4.1 



A further inquiry might appropriately be made as to 
whether those pupils who had most of their grade work in 
the University Elementary School do better than those 
who transferred from the traditional schools and had only 
the upper grade work in the University School. Tables XIV, 
XV, and XVI show the distribution of high school grades 
for these one hundred students arranged according to the 
years spent in the University Elementary School. 



454 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



TABLE XIV 

Percentage DisTRiBtrTioN of Grades Made by Fifty-five Graduates 
OF the University Elementary School Attending the Columbia 
City High School, Arranged According to the Time as Pupils 
IN THE University Elementary School 



WOHK IN 

U. E. S. 


No. OF 
Pupils 


E 


E&S 


S 


M 


I 


I&F 


F 


VII. . . . 
VI-VII . . 


> 


0.8 


SU 


23.6 


44.9 


21.6 


30.6 


9.0 


V-VII. . . 


9 
















IV-VII . . 


4U7 


8.6 


384 


29.8 


41.3 


14.6 


20.2 


5.6 


III-VII . . 


4J 
















II-VII . . . 
I-VII . . . 


I^}- 


4.7 


Jt6.5 


41.8 


39.2 


10.9 


14.2 


3.3 



TABLE XV 

Percentage Distribution of Grades Made by Forty-five Graduates 
of the University Elementary School Attending the University 
High School, Arranged According to the Time as Pupils in the 
University Elementary School 



Work in 
U. E. S. 


No. OP 

PXJPILB 


E 


E&S 


S 


M 




I&F 


F 


VII. .. . 
VI-VII . . 


> 


11.8 


39.6 


27.8 


48.8 


10.3 


114 


1.1 


V-VII. . . 


6]' 
















IV-VII . . 


1 9 


22.4 


39.6 


17.2 


41.0 


19.3 


19.3 


0.0 


III-VII . . 


2I 
















II-VII. . . 
I-VII . . . 


> 


20.5 


52.5 


32.0 


43.9 


3.6 


3.6 


0.0 



Table XVI consists of a combination of Table XIV and 
Table XV. 

Table XIV shows a marked increase of E and S grades, 
corresponding with increase of time of pupils in the University 
Elementary School, and a corresponding decrease of I and F 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



455 



grades. In Table XV the increase of high grades and the 
decrease of low grades are not so constant. Although the 
distribution of grades in the City High School and the 
University High School do not correspond. Table XIV and 
Table XV may be reasonably combined into Table XVI. 
Here the increase of high grades and the decrease of low 
grades are not constant for each grade, but E and S grades 
combined show constant increase with increase of time in 
the University Elementary School, and I and F grades 
combined show a correspondingly constant decrease. 
Tables XIV, XV, and XVI seem to supply sufficient evidence 
to warrant the conclusion that those pupils who take prac- 
tically all of their grade work in the University Elementary 
School are better prepared for high school work than those 
who have a portion of their grade work in the traditional 
schools. 

TABLE XVI 



Grades 


No. OF 

Pupils 


E 


E&S 


S 


M 


I 


I&F 


F 


VII. . 1 . 
VI-VII J . 
V-VII . 1 . 
IV-VII 
III-VII J . 
II-VII \ . 
I-VII . i . 


44 
26 
29 


6.3 
15.5 
12.6 


32.0 
39.0 
49.5 


25.7 
23.5 
36.9 


46.8 
41.2 
41.5 


15.9 
16.9 

7.2 


20.9 

19.7 

8.8 


5.0 

2.8 
1.6 



But it may be objected that those students who had the 
larger part of their work in the University Elementary School 
were by nature stronger and ranked higher in the grade 
work than those who had only the last one, two, or three 
years in this school. Such might be the case. If facts 
could be presented to show that only those children the more 
strongly endowed by nature entered the first grade at the 
University Elementary School, and that the weaker entered 



456 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

the first grade in public schools and later some transferred 
to this Universit}'^ School, then it would be quite impossible 
to conclude, as was done above, that the longer pupils remain 
in the University Elementary School rather than in the tra- 
ditional schools, the better able they are to carry the work 
of the high school. It is clearly impossible to compare 
these two groups of pupils from their first years of school, 
as they were enrolled in several distinct systems with no 
common standard of measurement. It would not be 
reasonable to presume that the particular twenty-nine 
pupils who were in the University Elementary School six 
or seven years, upon entering school at the age of six were 
favored with more schoolroom ability than the forty-four 
pupils who entered this school for only the last one or two 
years. Some of these forty-four pupils came from the rural 
school, some from village schools, some from distant city 
schools. These forty-four were probably equal to the 
twenty-nine in the initial stages of their school work. The 
forty-four pupils followed the traditional school course for 
five or six years. The twenty-nine pupils had no direct 
study of the Three R's and allied subjects. High school 
records, as presented above, show clearly that these twenty- 
nine pupils are superior to the forty-four in high school work. 
This comparison is made upon the basis of these pupils' 
work in the traditional subjects of the high school. One 
may interpret these facts to mean that the work of the 
University Elementary School is more effective in preparation 
for study in high schools than is the work of the traditional 
elementary schools. 

For explanation of this success in the high school of those 
who did not have the traditional drill in the grade school 
subjects, the reader is referred to the latter part of Chapter 
Eight, where an attempt was made to point out the ele- 
ments of eflSciency. First, the graduates of the University 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 457 

Elementary School acquire the habit of regarding the various 
school studies as personal problems; how we help one 
another, the squirrel as our pet, the grocery store, the meat 
market, the means of transportation, the post office, the 
army and navy, the work of the physicians and the nurse, 
— these community and national problems appeal to the 
personal interest of the pupils. Such are the problems of 
real life, outside of school, which appeal to children as well 
as adults as of personal concern to them, A disposition to 
study is engendered. 

Second, these pupils develop the spirit of initiative. No 
formal lessons are assigned as specific tasks for the pupils, but 
large problems are opened to them. Some individual help 
is given ; some assistance is contributed through the irregular 
conferences which take the place of recitations, but the 
pupil to a large extent is thrown upon his own resources. 
He develops much initiative. 

Third, the feeling of the problem as personal, and the 
development of the spirit of initiative contribute much to the 
pupil's method of study. He has no text to learn and explain. 
In most of the problems of study in the University Elemen- 
tary School there are observations to make, information to 
collect, comparisons to be worked out, conclusions to be 
reached. Some such methods of studying are acquired in 
this school and are carried over into high school work. 

Fourth, persistency is acquired through the character of 
the problems studied and the methods of study used. There 
is in this school no minutely detailed daily schedule. The 
flexible program given on page 259 shows long and irregular 
periods of time at the disposal of teacher and pupil. The 
topics, unlike those in arithmetic, geography, or the like, 
continue for some days or even weeks. For example in the 
fall of 1917 the fifth and sixth grades spent nine weeks on 
the one topic of manufacturing. This involved two and 



458 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

one half hours on this topic daily. Thus these pupils acquire 
the habit of working steadily on a problem for considerable 
time. 

Fifth, the work which these pupils do is unlimited. It 
cannot be said at any time, " the topic is finished." No 
answers are given at the close of the book. The pupils 
study so long as they have material appropriate for their 
work. They leave a piece of work with the desire to return 
for further study whenever opportunity invites. This 
tentative attitude toward results has much to do with leading 
a pupil to do his best. 

The success in high school work of the graduates of the 
University Elementary School is not due to the mere neglect 
of the traditional formal subjects, but rather to the acquire- 
ment of those elements of efficiency which come through 
normal contact with the problems of real life and which the 
normal Three R's cannot provide. Success is acquired 
through so neglecting the traditional work that time is 
available for more effective studies. These studies are 
selected to meet the immediate needs and interests of the 
pupils. These pupils acquire ability to study. They 
acquire also sufficient control over the traditional formal 
subjects — usually regarded as fundamental — to enable 
them to meet requirements in high school work. 

BRIEF CRITICISM OF MEASUREMENT IN TERMS OF 
SCHOOL WORK 

Common practice. Earlier traditional examinations and 
recent standard tests have been used in our schools as means 
of ascertaining what has been accomplished. The commonly 
accepted aim of the school, especially the immediate aim, 
has been the development of ability to read, write, and 
cipher. Schools have vied with one another in reading words, 
" spelling down," writing the copy, ciphering in exercises. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 459 

So long as this kind of work is the dominant aim in prac- 
tice, whether it is so in theory or not, so long will it be 
the custom to test the pupils as to their ability in these 
school arts. 

The wrong thing measured. It was some time after Rice ^ 
startled and provoked the school world by his claim that he 
measured the results of teaching spelling by testing the 
ability of children to spell, before school men recognized 
that the effectiveness of school work must be measured in 
terms of results secured. This means of measurement 
will not probably be questioned now ; but the " results " 
to be measured are decidedly questionable. In recent years 
there has swept over the country a great demand that schools 
serve more directly the individual and the community. 
There is a demand that school aims be identified with society's 
aims. This calls for a practical education. The curriculum 
of school arts must yield to a curriculum of life acts. Ability 
displayed in set tests in reading, writing, spelling, etc., is 
not the abiUty really sought as a product of the modern 
school. In real life we do not read under the direction of a 
proctor who holds a stop watch; we do not spell words 
merely for the sake of spelling them. Real life calls upon 
the modern school to so educate its pupils that they may act 
efficiently in the varied activities of normal life. To measure 
a pupil's ability to read words within time limits, and to add 
columns of numbers with a certain degree of rapidity and 
accuracy, measures an individual's efficiency in real life 
only when we know the correlation between efficiency in 
such reading and adding and efficiency in real life, such as 
the raising of wheat and voting on election day. The 
schools and the public are content to measure the ability of 
pupils in school arts only because they are not yet clearly 
thinking of the school in terms of life acts. 
1 See Forum for April, 1897. 



460 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

Professor Thorndike proposes a scale for the measurement 
of ability in reading. Lists of disconnected words are placed 
before the pupil whose ability is to be measured. The first 
two of a number of directions are : " Look at each word and 
write the letter F under every word that means a flower. 
Then look at each word again and write the letter A under 
every word that means an animal.'''' ^ In the lists are found 
the words, "lily," "pansy," " chrysanthemum," etc. This 
test is intended as a means of measuring ability to read. No 
effort is made to discover to what extent the child under- 
stands, in the course of certain readings, the printed state- 
ment, " The pansy has the face of a little fairy." Under 
normal conditions a first-grade pupil would probably read 
this statement with understanding and appreciation. But 
in the method of measurement proposed by Professor 
Thorndike the child is asked to react to the presence of the 
word " pansy " by thinking of the relation of this one flower, 
with which he is acquainted, to a group of plants, with which 
he has not yet had sufficient experience to enable him to 
understand the more general term " flower." This test is 
not measuring the child's real ability to read, but his ability 
to respond in a particular way to a set exercise, the like of 
which is not found once in a million cases in real life. The 
wrong thing is measured. 

Wrong purpose in studying and teaching. Current 
methods of measuring lead pupils and teachers to a wrong 
purpose in studying and teaching; viz., merely to meet the 
set standard in competing with others. One of our best- 
known efficiency experts seemed pleased to report the 
number of minutes saved in a class by stopping when a 
certain minimum requirement had been reached. This 
leads to the assumption on the part of the rank and file of 
school superintendents and teachers that the curriculum — 
^ Teachers College Record, Vol. 15, No. 4, page 3, 1914. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 461 

the schoolroom occupation — should consist of the formal 
exercises in which the tests are given. Standardization in the 
school arts — yes, even in direction of teachers — is the 
recent hobby of school leaders. This standardization is 
not that of the appreciation of historical events, or the 
judgment of certain social problems, but rather that of the 
mechanics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. The rank 
and file of school teachers will endeavor to meet the standard 
and no more. Then such standardization will have the effect 
of limiting school work to the mechanics of work, not at all 
of providing real education. 

As a corollary to what has just been stated, it is to be feared 
that school work is being measured in terms of the school 
arts in part because data of this sort are comparatively simple 
and available and thus the problem of measuring is much 
simplified. In a recent book a well-known author, in his 
study of efficiency of reading, limits himself to two problems : 
the rate of reading and the amount retained, as he frankly 
says, " because these are the elements most easily meas- 
ured." ^ If scientific method in education must be limited 
to elements " easily measured," rather than extended to 
elements worth measuring, such measurement is little less 
than a travesty upon our scientific movement in education. 

MEASUREMENT IN TERMS OF LIFE OUT OF SCHOOL 

The thing to be measured. It is almost universally and 
approvingly admitted that the trend of modern education 
is toward the practical. This tendency has been given an 
added impetus by the letters of President Wilson, Herbert 
Hoover, and Commissioner Claxton, calling upon school 
officers to give more time and attention in the schools of 
the country to instruction in the problems of community 

^ Freeman, F. N., Experimental Education, page 117. 



462 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

and national life.^ Just this viewpoint has been emphasized 
throughout this volume, especially in Chapters Six, Seven, 
and Nine. This demand for a schooling more in tune with 
practical life must lead to a further demand that a pupil's 
ability in particular activities in community or national life 
be measured instead of his ability to react to stimuli in formal 
school exercises. This same demand includes the measure- 
ment of the pupil's ability to carry on the work of higher 
schools. The report, given earlier in this chapter, of the 
work done by pupils from the University Elementary School 
in high schools is an illustration of such measurement. The 
value of the school as a social institution must be measured 
by its social and industrial service in the community and 
national life instead of by its activities within the school, 
isolated from real life. In short, the demand is that measure- 
ment be made of the effect of certain schooling upon the 
boy's ability in the shop, the factory, the oflSce ; and also 
the effect of such schooling upon the boy's behavior as a 
citizen in the home, in society, and in public places. 

Suggestions for measurement. 1. Measurements of abil- 
ities should be made only when such abilities are functioning 
in normal life. The truth is, no parent or employer is 
concerned with the rapidity or accuracy of a boy in set 
arithmetical tests. The real concern is: How rapid and 
accurate is the boy in the oflBce.? Arithmetical ability of 
any value is adequately tested only when arithmetical 
calculation is in use. Only in this way may we measure real 
values. Ability tested in a formal exercise leaves still the 
problem of the correlation between formal exercise and 
normal experience. Present methods of measuring fail to 
take sufficiently into account the conditions of children put 
to the test. For example, fourth-grade pupils are tested 
in ability to recognize words exposed to vision for a fraction 
^ See Elementary School Journal, Vol. 18, pages 81-85, 1917. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 463 

of a second. The novelty of the experience and the clap- 
trap device for exposing the words put the child in a frame 
of mind quite different from that in the normal experience of 
reading. Arithmetical ability measured by a set test and 
stop watch is not identical with that when the person is at 
work in the office or shop. Circumstances alter cases. 
Physical environment and mental attitude have much to do 
with the ability shown by an individual tested. If we are 
content to discover an individual's ability to add rapidly 
and accurately under artificial and formal circumstances, 
current practice is satisfactory. If we wish to measure 
ability of an individual to serve in a certain capacity in real 
life, we must examine that ability in the process of its 
functioning. 

2. Measurements of abilities should be in terms of normal 
experience rather than in terms of abstractions from that ex- 
perience. The ability of a bank clerk is rated not in terms 
of arithmetic, but in terms of banking activities. In similar 
terms citizens rate their grocers, farmers, lawyers, and 
preachers, and not in arithmetic, reading, or spelling exercises. 
The public has a right to demand that school tests be in 
terms of life acts understood by the public. The pedagogue 
is not long to stand on a pedestal apart from his patrons. 
School is becoming more closely related to life, and the de- 
scription of its activities must be more and more in terms 
of the life that it serves. 

3. These measurements may be made with the assistance 
of parents and of people in social and industrial life. In 
real life the layman's judgment is accepted at par value. 
In the educational world it is discounted, only because 
pedagogical rather than practical measurements are em- 
ployed. The personal equation may be present, but under 
normal conditions. The data may be reliable. The method 
may be strictly scientific. Students of statistics should 



464 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

apply their methods to experience rather than to school 
subjects. The problem seems to be essentially this : Thou- 
sands of young men and women now in homes, in society, in 
factories, oflfices, or other places of business, and in school 
work as students or teachers should be selected for purposes 
of measurement for efficiency. Their efficiency judged by 
employers and citizens should be compared with their effi- 
ciency shown as pupils in the lower schools, three, five, eight, 
or ten years earlier. There would surely be difficulties in 
securing reliable estimates of efficiency of such people in real 
life. But that difficulty must be overcome by the student 
of measurements. There would be difficulties in securing 
satisfactory terms of expression for such ratings of efficiency. 
But these difficulties must be overcome. When secured, 
such correlations between school activities and later activities 
would be of immense value in discovering individual ability 
and school efficiency and in linking more closely the school 
and the community. 

4. The influence of such measurements would be : (1) A 
demand for a more valuable educational content in the school 
curriculum ; a curriculum in terms of life out of school. 
Any measurement of arithmetical ability, ability in spelling, 
etc, would be only incidental. If the school were frequently 
confronted with the question. How efficient are the graduates 
as clerks, as workmen, or as citizens? school occupation 
would be more in terms of the occupation of clerks, workmen, 
or citizens. The student of measurements of educational 
products has a great opportunity to influence the nature of 
schoolroom occupation. If he emphasizes the mechanics 
of the Three R's, he will be working against current tend- 
encies in demands for a school of practical life. If he em- 
phasizes the measurements of activities in real life, he will 
work in harmony with modern tendencies. (2) A supply of 
genuine motive on the part of pupils to qualify for the tests 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 465 

that they must meet in life after school. A motive of this 
character is greatly needed in modern school work. 

Objection answered. It is readily objected that such 
measurements are too indefinite and inaccurate by reason of 
the personal equation involved. But just this personal 
equation is so prominent in real life that to disregard it is 
to measure only partially the ability in question. There is 
serious danger that the efficiency expert in education attempt 
to copy too closely the scientific methods of the efficiency 
expert in mechanics, and thus insist upon that definiteness 
and accuracy that admit of verification more for the sake of 
verification than for social service. Educational problems 
consist largely of personal elements, which are not yet, if 
ever, to be defined in terms of mechanics. Educational 
leaders can afford to be less definite and accurate in their 
measures of achievement if that achievement is so marked 
as to be effective in community and national life. This 
effectiveness is of first concern. The educational expert with 
his statistical measurements is not to be ruled out, but he is 
asked to apply his measures to real life, making allowance 
for indefiniteness and inaccuracy due to the personal equation 
which can be neither disregarded nor wholly accounted for. 

Illustration of this measurement. One illustration of the 
method of measurement may be given here. The measure- 
ment of ability to read has become a problem in recent years. 
Some of the things we really would like to know about 
children's readings are : the nature of readings done by 
them ; the amount they read from time to time ; the effects 
of that reading, i.e., how much they retain, what use they 
make of what they remember, what thoughts or studies are 
aroused by this reading. Answers to these questions are 
the measurements wanted by interested parent and citizen. 
Answers to these questions cannot be secured in a few 
minutes marked by a stop watch. Some years of watchful 



466 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

waiting are needed. An account of the leisure reading as 
conducted in the University Elementary School was given in 
Chapter Fifteen. Table IX in that chapter shows the number 
of books read in each of three years in each of seven grades. 
The original data from which that tabular view is taken 
show the particular books read by each pupil. Tables XVII 
and XVIII at the close of this chapter show the books read 
by five or more pupils in three years and in what grades 
these books were read. 

This list of books shows the character of the reading done. 
By reference to the original data this list could be reorganized 
(if an investigator so wished) to show differences in readings 
done by boys and girls, by the phlegmatic and the sanguine 
pupils, by those who are above medium in arithmetic and 
those who are below, by those who have blue eyes and those 
who have brown. Thus the character and the amount of 
reading done by individuals or groups can be ascertained 
and serve as measures of interests and abilities of those 
doing the reading. 

To endeavor to ascertain the effects of such reading upon 
the boys and girls would be much less definite and thus, to 
many, much less satisfactory than the measurements sug- 
gested for the character and quantity of material read. For 
what purpose should a boy be expected to retain in memory 
any information contained in the book, Dutch Twins? 
Merely to meet a formal test would be futile ; but to provide 
material for allusions in conversation would warrant an 
effort to retain portions of this story. The number of such 
allusions made might be noted and thus serve as a partial 
measurement of reading done. How much Black Beauty 
has influenced the thought and action of its readers could 
be approximately ascertained. Another effect of this 
reading might well be measured by following up the readings 
carried on by pupils out of school and after school days 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 467 

are ended. To what extent leisure time is spent in wholesome 
reading can be fairly accurately recorded. 

Here, then, are some of the measures of real reading — 
real reading, and not the mere recognition of words in set 
exercises. In the illustration given the individuals are 
measured as to reading while that reading is normally 
functioning in their lives. The investigator has measured 
certain abilities in reading without interrupting the reading 
and without even letting the pupils know that their reading 
abilities were being measured. The effects of such meas- 
urements would be to emphasize before the public the 
importance of conducting in school reading appropriate for 
real life, and not the exercising of the mere art of reading 
in the school. 

If many school systems provided their pupils with the 
opportunity to read that is provided in the University 
Elementary School, and if in these school systems records 
were kept of the reading done, a fairly accurate and very 
effective measurement of pupils' abilities in (real) reading 
would be made. Moreover, through these measurements 
there would be collected a quantity of reading material much 
better adapted to the children's abilities and their interests 
and much more appropriate for the out-of -school life of the 
pupils as little citizens. 

But such a plan of measurement of reading abilities is 
impossible so long as the school curriculum so grossly limits 
school reading to mere exercises in learning to read rather 
than provides opportunity for reading to learn. The Thorn- 
dike and Kelly reading scales are applicable to the traditional 
work. They are too limited to even touch the reading that 
is done under normal conditions. 

Similarly, arithmetical ability, if that as such is wanted, 
can be measured by following pupils into stores, shops, 
factories, and other places of employment, and there taking 



468 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



into account the arithmetical calculations made as a part 
of the work. Abilities in geography, spelling, language, etc., 
may be measured in similar ways. It should be noted, 
however, that while reading, as considered above, is one of 
the normal activities ^ of life, arithmetic, spelling, language, 
etc., are not found in real life at all. While the method of 
measurement here proposed can be applied to abilities in these 
traditional subjects, this measurement would tend to find 
application only in those schoolroom subjects that are 
identified with life activities out of school. 

TABLE XVII 
Books Read by Ten or More Pupils in Three Years (1914-1917) 







Grades 








No. 


Name of Book 










Times 


Rank 


OP 

Same 




I 


II 


III 


IV 


V-VI 


VII 


xvSAD 




Rank 


Ab, the Cave Man .... 




1 


9 








10 


25 


26 


Adventures of a Brownie 




1 


11 


5 


2 


2 


20 


.15 


9 


Alice in Wonderland . . . 




3 


7 


3 




2 


15 


20 


11 


American Boy at Henley 










4 


13 


17 


18 


5 


American History Stories 






1 


6 


1 


2 


10 


25 


26 


Andersen's Best Fairy Tales 




3 


7 


2 






12 


23 


20 


Another Fairy Reader . . 




10 


3 




1 




14 


21 


11 


At the Back of the North 




















Wind 






1 


12 


1 


3 


17 


18 


7 


At the Open Door .... 


1 


8 


4 








13 


22 


13 


Banbury Cross Stories . . 


1 


6 


5 








12 


23 


20 


Bear Stories 










2 


8 


10 


25 


26 


Betty in Canada .... 






1 




8 


1 


10 


25 


26 


Betty Leicester's Christmas 








2 


2 


6 


10 


25 


26 


Biography of a Grizzly . . 






3 


6 


1 




10 


25 


26 


Black Beauty 






1 


4 


7 




12 


23 


20 


Book of Nature Myths . . 




4 


6 


13 


4 




27 


8 




Bow-wow and Mew-mew 


10 


2 


1 








13 


22 


13 


Boy and Girl Heroes . . . 








6 


5 




11 


24 


21 


Boy Blue and His Friends . 


8 


12 


1 








21 


14 


11 


Boys of Rincon Ranch . . 






2 


7 


4 




13 


22 


13 



See Chapter Fifteen. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



469 



TABLE XVII — Continued 







Gbades 








No. 


Name op Book ; 










Times 

rtKAD 


EIank 


OF 

Sams 




I 


n 


III 


rv 


V-VI 


vn 






Rank 


Brownie Primer .... 


28 


9 










37 


3 


2 


Brownie's Quest .... 


2 


6 


7 


1 






16 


19 


7 


Bunny Boy and Grizzly Bear 


3 


5 


4 








12 


23 


20 


Bunny Bright Eyes . . . 


7 


12 


2 








21 


14 


5 


Bunny Cottontail, Jr. . . 


1 


10 


4 








15 


20 


11 


Cab and Caboose .... 








2 


4 


10 


16 


19 


9 


Captain June 








1 


7 


; 2 


10 


25 


26 


Cat School 


23 


7 
4 


3 
6 


7. 


4 


10 


30 
24 
10 


7 
11 
25 


2 


Cat Stories 


3 


Cave Boy 


26 


Chats in the Zoo .... 




9 


1 








10 


25 


26 


Cherry Tree Children . . 


14 


8 










22 


13 


2 


Children of the Wigwam . . 




2 


4 


3 




7 


16 


19 


9 


Christmas Angel . . '. . 






2 


4 


2 


5 


13 


22 


13 


Circus Book . 




1 
9 


9 

8 


5 

8 


3 


1 




16 
17 
11 


19 
18 
24 


9 


Circus Reader . 




" 7 


Colonial Days . 




21 


Crib and Fly . . 








7 


4 




2 


13 


22 


13 


Dame Wiggins of Lee . . 


14 


6 










20 


15 


9 


Diddie, Dumps, and Tot 






2 


1 


4 


3 


10 


25 


26 


Dutch Twins 




1 


17 

2 


11 

2 


10 
3 


2 
4 


41 
11 


2 

24 




Eight Cousins 


21 


Elson Reader, I .... 


9 


5 










14 


21 


11 


Eskimo Twins 




1 


10 
5 


12 

8 


6 
2 


3 


32 
15 


5 
20 




Fairy Book 


11 


Fairy Reader 


9 


14 


8 


3 






34 


4 




Far Away Lands . . . . 






4 


6 






10 


25 


26 


Fast Mail 






1 
9 


1 
5 


1 
1 


8 


11 
15 


24 
20 


21 


Fifty Famous People . . . 


11 


Five Little Foxes and Other 




















Tales 




1 


9 


1 
3 




10 


11 
13 


24 
22 


21 


Following the Ball . . . . 


13 


Granny's Wonderful Chair . 






2 


9 




1 


12 


23 


20 


Grimm's Fairy Tales . . . 




9 


8 


3 






20 


15 


9 


Gulliver's Travels . . . . 




1 


8 


5 




1 


15 


20 


11 


Hans the Eskimo . . . . 






2 


9 


10 


1 


22 


13 


2] 


Hawk Eye, an Indian Story 


3 


16 


1 








20 


15 


9 


Heidi 








2 


3 


5 


10 


25 


26 







470 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



TABLE KYll — Continued 



Namx of Book 



Gbades 



II HI IV v-vi va 



Times 
Read 


Rank 


11 


24 


15 


20 


10 


25 


10 


25 


20 


15 


11 


24 


11 


24 


31 


6 


14 


21 


23 


12 


11 


24 


11 


24 


19 


16 


52 


1 


37 


3 


15 


20 


10 


25 


11 


24 


16 


19 


21 


14 


20 


15 


11 


24 


12 


23 


15 


20 


11 


24 


31 


6 


21 


14 


12 


23 


18 


17 


20 


15 


14 


21 


10 


25 


11 


24 


11 


24 


14 


21 


21 


14 



Here and There with Paul 

and Peggy . . 
Holland Stories . . 
Hop o' My Thumb 
Indian Folk Tales . 
Indian Legends . . 
In Fableland . . 
In Texas with Davy Crockett 

Irish Twins 

Jack and Jill .... 
Jack and the Bean Stalk . 
Jack, the Fire Dog . . . 
Jack the Giant Killer . . 
Jan and Betje .... 
Japanese Fairy Tales . . 
Japanese Twins . . . 

Jungle Book 

Kathleen in Ireland . . 
Kristy's Queer Christmas 
Legends from the Red Man's 

Forest 

Little Bear 

Little Eskimo .... 
Little Folk of. Many Lands 
Little Girl of Long Ago, A 
Little Lord Fauntleroy 
Little Men . . . 
Little Princess . . 
Little Women . . 
Lives of the Hunted 
Lonesomest Doll, The 
Lovey Mary 
Magic Forest 
Manuel in Mexico 
Marta in Holland 
Martha of California 
Mary 'n' Mary . . 
Merry Animal Tales 



10 



10 



12 

16 

12 

6 

5 

4 



11 
12 
5 
9 
12 
6 
3 
5 
5 
5 
1 



4 
2 
3 
11 
7 
4 
3 
5 
6 

3 
4 
6 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



471 



TABLE X\Il — Continued 



Name of Book 







Grades 




TrwES 
Read 


Rank 


I 


n 


in 


IV 


V-VI 


vn 






9 


5 


2 






16 


19 






2 


8 


2 




12 


23 






2 


3 


2 


4 


11 


24 








2 


4 


4 


10 


25 


9 


6 


2 


1 






18 


17 






13 


15 


2 


1 


31 


6 






13 


15 


3 




31 


6 






10 


17 


3 




30 


7 








1 


13 


4 


18 


■17 






8 


3 




1 


12 


23 






8 


5 


3 




16 


19 






1 


9 


4 


1 


15 


20 


10 












10 


25 


17 


8 










25 


10 








3 


4 


5 


12 


23 






2 


3 


11 


3 


19 


16 






10 


1 






11 


24 


1 


8 


7 


8 






24 


11 


1 


8 


6 


2 






17 


18 


1 


8 


5 








14 


21 








2 


14 


9 


25 


10 




5 


7 








12 


23 






5 


7 




1 


13 


22 








1 


5 


4 


10 


25 






6 


13 


1 




20 


15 


2 


12 


5 








19 


16 








2 


6 


5 


13 


22 


2 


6 


2 








10 


25 


9 


1 


2 








12 


23 



No. 

OF 

Same 
Rank 



Mewanee, the Little Indian 
Boy ....... . 

Miss Muffet's Christmas 
Party 

Moni, the Goat Boy . . . 

Mother Carey's Chickens . 

Mother Goose Stories in 
Prose 

Mother West Wind's Animal 
Friends 

Mother West Wind's Chil- 
dren 

Mother West Wind's Neigh- 
bors 

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage 
Patch 

Mr. Wind and Madam Rain 

Old Ballads in Prose . . . 

Old Time Tales . . . . 

Outdoor Primer .... 

Overall Boys 

Panther Stories 

Pappina, the Little Wan- 
derer 

Paul's Trip with the Moon . 

Peter and Polly in Spring . 

Peter and Polly in Summer . 

Peter and Polly in Winter . 

Peterkin Papers .... 

Pied Piper and Other Stories 

Pig Brother 

Pilgrim Stories 

Pinocchio 

Polly and DoUy . . . . 

Pollyanna 

Pretty Polly Flinders . . . 

Progressive Road to Read- 
ing, I 



472 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



TABLE XVII — Continued 







Gbades 






No. 


Name of Book 










Times 
Read 


Rank 


OF 

Same 
Rank 




I 


n 


ni 


IV 


V-VI 


VII 




Progressive Road to Read- 




















ing, II 


9 


7 


2 


1 






14 


21 


11 


Puss in Boots, Reynard the 




















Fox 


4 


4 










13 


21 


11 


Rafael in Italy .... 








2 


6 


2 


10 


25 


26 


Reading Literature (Primer) 


16 


1 










17 


18 


7 


Reading Literature (First) . 


9 


I 3 










12 


23 


20 


Red Riding Hood, etc. . . 


9 


' 1 










10 


25 


26 


Reform of Shaun . . . 






3 


5 


2 


3 


13 


22 


13 


Reynard the Fox 




1 


12 


2 








15 


20 


11 


Robin Hood . 






10 


2 
5 


9 
1 


4 

1 


4 

2 


19 
19 


16 
16 


7 


Robinson Crusoe 




7 


Roly Poly Book 




2 


11 


5 


1 






19 


16 


7 


Ruth of Boston 








2 


6 


6 




14 


21 


11 


Second Brownie Book 


1 


17 


1 








19 


16 


7 


Second Fairy Reader . 


3 


11 


2 








16 


19 


9 


Seventeen Little Bears . 


5 


11 


1 








17 


18 


7 


Sophie 








1 4 


3 


5 


12 


23 


20 


Stories from Chaucer . 






1 


7 


3 


1 


12 


23 


20 








9 


5 






14 


21 


11 


Stories Grandmother Told 






6 


12 


6 




24 


11 


3 


Stories of American Pic 


- 


















neers 






4 


3 




3 


10 


25 


26 


Stories of Indian Days . 






5 


4 


3 




12 


23 


20 


Stories of Mother Goose 




















Village 


2 


7 


4 


1 






14 


21 


11 


Story Hour Primer . . 


12 












12 


23 


|20 


Story Hour Reader, I 


9 




4 








13 


22 


13 


Story Hour Reader, II . 


1 


6 


3 


1 






11 


24 


21 


Story Land 




2 


6 


3 






11 


24 


21 


Storyland in Play . . . 


8 


7 










15 


20 


11 


Story of a Donkey . . 






8 


12 


2 


4 


26 


9 


3 


Story of Akimakoo . . 






5 


5 






10 


25 


26 


Story of the Middle Ages 












10 


10 


25 


26 


Story of Two Kittens 


1 


7 


3 








11 


24 


21 


Summers First Reader . 


. 12 




4 


2 






18 


17 


5 


Summers Readers, III . 




2 


6 


2 


1 




11 


24 


21 


Sunbonnet Babies in HoUan 


i 2 


6 


6 








14 


21 


11 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



473 



TABLE X\Il — Continued 



Name of Book 



Sure Pop and the Safety 

Scouts 

Tale of Bunny Cotton Tail . 
Things Will Take a Turn . 
Those Dreadful Mouse Boys 

Three Bears 

Three Little Cotton Tails . 
Three Little Kittens . . . 

Three Pigs 

Tommy Tinker's Book . . 

Tree Dwellers 

Twilight Town 

Two Little Confederates 
Two Little Indians . . . 



Grades 



[I II III IV V-VI VII 



12 



12 



10 



Times 
Read 



10 
26 
13 
18 
23 
17 
12 
20 
16 
12 
12 
13 
26 



Rank 



25 
9 
22 
17 
12 
18 
23 
15 
19 
23 
23 
22 
9 



No. 

OF 

Same 
Rank 



26 

3 

13 

5 

2 

7 

20 

9 

9 

20 

20 

13 

3 



TABLE XVIII 

Books Read bt Five, Six, Seven, Eight, or Nine Pupils, in Three 
Years (1914-1917) 

These books are ranked with those read ten times or more 



Name of Book 


Grades 


Times 
Read 


Rank 


No. 

OP 

Same 
Rank 




I 


n 


in 


IV 


V-VI 


VH; 


Adrift on an Ice Pan . . . 
Adventures of Mabel . . . 

Alice and Tom 

Among the Farm People 
Among the Meadow People 
Animals at Home .... 

Arabian Nights 

Around the World in the 

Sloop Spray 

Ben the Black Bear . . . 






1 
4 
4 
4 

1 


2 
2 
2 
2 

2 

2 

1 
1 


1 
5 

1 

3 
1 


3 

2 
2 
1 

1 

4 

4 
3 


6 
9 
6 
7 
5 
6 
9 

5 
6 


29 
26 
29 
28 
30 
29 
26 

30 
29 


41 
23 
41 
31 
43 
41 
23 

43 
41 



474 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



TABLE XYIII — Continued 







Grades 








No. 


Name op Book 












Times 


Rank 


OP 

Same 




I 


II 


III 


IV 


V-VI 


vn 






Rank 


Big People and Little People 




















of Other Lands .... 






5 


2 






7 


28 


31 


Birds' Christmas Carol . . 






6 


3 






9 


26 


23 


Bird Woman of the Lewis 




















and Clark Expedition . . 






3 


2 






5 


30 


43 


Bonny Prince 




3 


1 


2 






6 


29 


41 


Boris in Russia 






1 


1 


3 


1 


6 


29 


41 


Boy in Eirinn 








1 


1 


5 


7 


28 


31 


Boys of the Revolution . . 








1 


2 


6 


9 


26 


23 


Boy with the U. S. Foresters 










1 


4 


5 


30 


43 


Burnham Breaker .... 










1 


5 


6 


29 


41 


Buz 










2 


3 


5 


30 


43 


Captains Courageous . . . 










3 


4 


7 


28 


31 


Cat-Tails and Other Tales . 






1 


2 




2 


5 


30 


43 


Child Classics, III . . . . 






6 








6 


29 


41 


Child Life Readers, II . . 




3 


4 








7 


28 


31 


Child Literature .... 




5 










5 


30 


43 


Children of the Cliff . . . 




4 


5 








9 


26 


23 


Children of the Palm Lands 




3 


2 


1 






6 


29 


41 


Child's Garden of Verses 






6 


3 






9 


26 


23 


Chinese Fables and Folk 




















Stories 






1 


3 


2 




6 


29 


41 


Colliery Jim 










4 


1 


5 


30 


43 


Count Up the Sunny Days . 








2 


4 




6 


29 


41 


Dab Kinzer 








1 


3 


3 


7 


28 


31 


Dick Whittington, and 




















Other Stories 




2 


3 








5 


30 


43 


Docas, An Indian Boy . . 




3 


5 


1 






9 


26 


23 


Doers 






5 








5 


30 


43 


Dog of Flanders .... 










1 


4 


5 


30 


43 


Donald in Scotland . . . 








2 


3 




5 


30 


43 


Early Cave Men .... 






2 


4 


1 




7 


29 


31 


Early Sea People .... 






6 


3 






9 


28 


23 


East o' the Sun and West o' 
















' 




the Moon 




2 


6 


1 






9 


26 


23 




1 


8 










9 


26 


23 


Elson Reader, III . . . . 




2 


4 








6 


29 


41 


Eskimo Stories 




3 


5 








8 


27 


17 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



475 



TABLE XYIII — Continued 





Grades 








No. 


Name op Book 










Times 
Read 


Rank 


OP 

Same 




I 


II 


III 


IV 


V-VI 


VII 






Rank 


Fairy Stories and Fables 






6 


1 






7 


28 


31 


Fairy Tales Every Child 




















Should^Know .... 






3 


4 






7 


28 


31 


First Book of Birds 








4 




2 


1 


7 


28 


31 


Fishing and Hunting 








7 


1 






8 


27 


17 


Five Little Peppers 








1 


2 


3 


1 


7 


28 


31 


Five Little Strangers 








5 




1 




6 


29 


41 


Folk Lore Reader, II 




1 


4 


2 








7 


28 


31 


Foiu- American Inventors . 








1 


2 


3 


6 


29 


41 


Foiu- New York Boys . . 






2 


2 


3 




7 


28 


31 


Fox's Indian Primer . . . 




7 










7 


28 


31 


Fritz in Germany .... 






1 


1 


4 


2 


8 


27 


17 


Gerda in Sweden .... 






1 




5 




6 


29 


41 


Golden Fluff and Other 




















Stories .••••*. 






1 






7 


8 


27 


17 


Gold Seeking on the Dalton 




Trail 






4 


1 

4 


1 


5 


7 
8 


28 

27 


31 


Goody Two Shoes .... 


17 


Hans Brinker 








2 


1 


3 


6 


29 


41 


Hassan in Egypt .... 






1 




4 




5 


30 


43 


Hero Stories from American 




















History 








1 


2 


2 


5 


30 


43 


History Stories of Other 




















Lands 




6 


5 


2 




2 


9 
6 


26 
29 


23 


Hopi, the Cliff Dweller . . 


41 


Horace Mann Reader, II 




5 


1 








6 


29 


41 


Howell's Story Book . . . 








6 






6 


29 


41 


Howe Readers, III . . . 






5 








5 


30 


43 


Indian Child Life .... 








5 


1 


2 


8 


27 


17 


In Mythland 






5 








5 


30 


43 


In the Days of Giants . . 








3 


3 


1 


7 


28 


31 


In the Days of William the 




















Conqueror 










5 


1 


6 


29 


41 


Jack, a Boy in Beast Land . 






3 


2 






5 


30 


43 


Japanese Fairy Tales, II 








5 


1 




6 


29 


41 


Japanese Folk Stories . . 








2 


1 


2 


5 


30 


43 


J. Cole 








3 


1 

2 


1 
3 


5 
5 


30 
30 


43 


John Halifax, Gentleman . 


43 



476 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



TABLE XVIII — Continued 





Gkades 








No. 


Name of Book 










Times 
Read 


Rank 


OF 




I 


II 


III 


IV 


V-VI 


VII 






Rank 


Jo's Boys 








1 


5 


2 


8 


27 


17 


Josefa in Spain 






3 


2 






5 


30 


43 


Juan and Juanita .... 








1 


5 


3 


9 


26 


23 


King Arthur and His Knights 








2 


1 


3 


6 


29 


41 


King of the Golden River . 




1 


4 


2 




1 


8 


27 


17 


Krag and Johnny Bear . . 








3 


1 


3 


7 


28 


31 


Kwahu, the Hopi Indian Boy 






1 


5 


1 


1 


8 


27 


17 


Lads and Lassies of Other 




















Days 










5 


1 


6 


29 


41 


Legends of the Red Children 






4 


3 






7 


28 


31 


Legends of Springtime . . 






4 


4 






8 


27 


17 


Letters from a Cat 






2 


3 




1 


6 


29 


41 


Life in the Greenwood . . 






1 


1 


2 


2 


6 


29 


41 


Lion and Tiger Stories . . 








1 


3 


3 


7 


28 


31 


Little Colonel 








1 


7 


1 


9 


26 


23 


Little Folks of Far Away 




















Lands 






4 


1 






5 


30 


43 


Little Jan the Dutch Boy . 






4 


3 






7 


28 


31 


Little Kingdom Primer . . 


3 


3 










6 


29 


41 


Little Me Too 








4 


5 




9 


26 


23 


Little Mr. Thimblefinger . 








3 


3 




6 


29 


41 


Little People of Japan . . 






5 


1 






6 


29 


41 


Little People of the Snow . 




4 


5 








9 


26 


23 


Little Red Hen 


6 












6 


29 


41 


Little Red Riding Hood . . 


6 












6 


29 


41 


Little Smoke 








1 


2' 


2 


5 


30 


43 


Little Stories of France . . 










2 


3 


5 


30 


43 


Lodrix, the Lake Dweller 




4 


5 








9 


26 


23 


Marion's Experiences in 




















Germany 






1 


2 




2 


5 


30 


43 


Mary Frances' Cook Book . 








2 


2 


3 


7 


28 


31 


Meadow Sprite and Other 




















Tales 






1 


2 


1 


1 


5 


30 


43 


Mischief's Thanksgiving . . 






1 


3 


3 


2 


9 


26 


23 


Mother Goose Land . . . 


8 












8 


27 


17 


Mother Goose Primer 


4 


1 










5 


30 


43 


Myths Every Child Should 




















Know 






3 


3 






6 


29 


41 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 



477 



TABLE XVIIl — Continued 





Grades 






No. 


Name op Book 








Times 


Rank 


OF 




I 


II 


III 


IV 


V-VI 


VII 


iVEAD 




OAME 

Rank 


Myths of the Red Children . 








4 


1 




5 


30 


43 


Norse Fairy Tales .... 








5 


1 




6 


29 


41 


Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales . 


1 


5 


1 








7 


28 


31 


Old World Wonder Stories . 








8 


1 




9 


26 


23 


Palmer Cox Brownie Primer 


4 


1 










5 


30 


43 


Philip of Texas 






2 


6 






8 


27 


17 


Playmates Primer .... 


5 












5 


30 


43 


Playtime 


3 


4 










7 


28 


31 


Princess and Curdie . . . 






1 


4 


1 


3 


9 


26 


23 


Progressive Road to Read- 




















ing, III ...... 




1 


4 








5 


30 


43 


Puss in Boots 


2 


3 










5 


30 


43 


Reading-Literatm-e, II . . 


1 


4 










5 


30 


43 


Rebecca of Sunnybrook 




















Farm 








2 


1 


6 


9 


26 


23 


Rhyme and Story Primer . 


5 


2 










7 


28 


31 


Robin Reader 


3 


5 










8 


27 


17 


Rollo in Paris 










4 


1 


5 


30 


43 


Rose in Bloom 








2 


2 


2 


6 


29 


41 


Sea Stories for Wonder Eyes 






1 


1 


3 




5 


30 


43 


Second Reader 






5 


1 






6 


29 


41 


Secrets of the Woods . . . 










3 


4 


7 


28 


31 


Sinopah, the Indian Boy 








1 


5 


1 


7 


28 


31 


Squirrels and Other Fur 




















Bearers 






3 


3 






6 


29 


41 


Stories of Animal Life 




1 


1 


1 


2 




5 


30 


43 


Stories of Colonial Children 






6 


1 






7 


28 


31 








4 


1 






5 


30 


43 


Stories of India 








3 


1 


1 


5 


30 


43 


Stories of Indian Children . 






5 








5 


30 


43 


Stories of the United States 




















for Youngest Readers . . 






6 








6 


29 


41 


Stories of the United States 








6 






6 


29 


41 


Stories to Tell to Children . 






3 


3 






6 


29 


41 


Story of King Arthur . . . 






1 


5 


1 




7 


28 


31 


Story of Little Nell . . . 








1 


3 


1 


5 


30 


43 


Story of Wretched Flea . . 






7 








7 


28 


31 


Sunbonnet Babies .... 


5 


1 










6 


29 


41 



478 



CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 



TABLE XVIll — Continued 



Name of Book 



Swiss Family Robinson . . 

Tales and Plays of Robin 
Hood 

Tales from the Far North . 

Thirty More Famous Stories 
Retold 

Three Kittens, Chicken 
Little 

Through the Looking Glass . 

Trail to the Woods . . . 

Trapper Jim 

Treasure Island .... 

Trixey's Travels .... 

Two Little Knights of Ken- 
tucky 

Two Little Savages . . . 



G BACKS 



I n m IV v-vi VII 



Times 
Read 



Rank 



30 

30 
30 

28 

26 
26 
29 

28 
27 
26 

27 
29 



No. 

OF 

Samb 
Rank 



43 

43 
43 

31 

23 
23 
41 
31 
17 
23 

17 
41 



Some Supplementary Studies 

Ateeb, L. p. a Scale for Measuring the Quality of Handtoriting of School 
Children. 

A Scale for the Measurement of Spelling Ability. 

Bbeed, F. S., and Frostie, F. W. "A Scale for Measuring the General 
Merit of English Composition in the Sixth Grade." Educational School 
Journal, Vol. XVII, pages 307-325. 

CoBNMAN, O. P. Spelling in the Elementary School. 

Courtis, S. A. Courtis Standard Practice Tests. 

Freeman, F. N. Experimental Education. 

JuDD, C. H. Measuring the Work of the Public Schools. 

Kelly, F. J. The Kansas Silent Reading Tests. 

Merlam, J. L. " Measuring School Work in Terms of Life out of School." 
School and Society, Vol. V, pages 339-342, 1917. 

"How Well May Pupils be Prepared for High School Work without 

Studying Arithmetic, Grammar, etc., in the Grades ? " Journal of 
Educational Psychology, Vol. VI, pages 361-364, 1915. 



EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 479 

MoNKOE, W. S., De Voss, J. C, and Kelly, F. J. Educational Tests and 

Measurements. (See bibliography at close of each chapter for further 

studies.) 
Rice, J. M. Scientific Management in Education. 
Riley, J. L. The Springfield Tests, 1846-1906. 
RuGG, H. O. Statistical Methods Applied to Education. (See bibliography 

at the close for further studies.) 
Stabch, D. Educational Measurements. 
Stone, C. W. Arithmetical Abilities and Some of the Factors Determining 

Them. 
Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. 
Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology. 

Mental and Social Measurements. 

" The Measurement of Ability in Reading." Teachers College Record, 

Vol. 15, No. 4, 1914. 
Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Testa. 



IN CONCLUSION 

, A restatement of the problem of the curricultmi. Bobby 
graduated from the village high school. He soon became a 
" printers' devil " and in time succeeded in advancing to the 
position of editor-in-chief. 

As is true of most high school graduates, Bobby was quite 
well trained in the formal exercises found in English grammar, 
in algebra, in history, in book science. His acquaintance 
with current problems of community life was limited to that 
which he had incidentally acquired as a boy about town. 
His advancement in the printing business was largely due 
to his industry in this school of real life in which he quite 
accidentally enrolled. 

In the foregoing pages I have tried to portray, briefly, the 
situation in the traditional schools and the demand by the 
public that schools function more directly and more eflfi- 
ciently as agencies for social and industrial improvement. 
I have sought to center attention upon the content of the 
curriculum, rather than upon the questions of method and 
management, which seem to me quite subordinate to those of 
the curriculum. The Three R's, by their very nature, are 
ill adapted to the needs of an evolutionary society. Social 
and industrial life is changing rapidly and the demand is 
insistent that schoolroom employment — the curriculum — 
be more immediately related to the vocational and leisure 
activities of the community. In the second place I have 
endeavored to meet this demand by outlining a course of 
study for the elementary school in terms of the pupil's 
present and probable experience in community life. The child 
must become acquainted with his environment and learn to 
work. Vocational guidance is found best in industrial 
intelligence and work aptitudes. He must develop an appre- 
ciation of play and acquire an ability to spend well the leisure 

480 



IN CONCLUSION 481 

time that current civilization provides. This curriculum, 
a few details of which are presented in Chapter Seventeen, is 
arranged for the schoolroom, with such excursions into real 
community life as are possible. 

As stated in the Preface, this volume is essentially a report 
of an experiment carried on during the last decade at the 
University Elementary School, situated at Columbia, 
Missouri. Results, so far as yet measured, are presented 
in Chapter Nineteen. Further tests of the value of this work 
are contemplated. 

A pertinent question. The many visitors at this school, a 
large number of summer students of education coming 
directly from the practical field of teaching, and many 
correspondents have expressed themselves in full agreement 
with the principles and practices as carried out in this school. 
But most appropriate is the frequent question : What is 
the possibility of carrying this plan over into public schools 
and just how can it be done ? I pointed out in Chapter Seven 
that in a variety of schools there is already evidence of a 
tendency in this direction. Not until many outline studies 
are published, as represented by those in Chapter Seventeen, 
can teachers carry out such work to any considerable extent. 

Two controlling principles in application. I think it may 
safely be said that the public is wisely progressive in industrial 
affairs but ignorantly conservative in educational matters. 
Industrial, social, and civic affairs receive much more atten- 
tion in the press than school matters. The public is informed 
in the one case, and this information is the basis for the 
progressive attitude. For this reason school changes must 
be made cautiously and slowly. The would-be school 
reformer must respect the conservative public, uninformed 
or misinformed about school conditions and possibilities. 

A second principle is this : A given school unit should 
dda'pt rather than ado'pt principles and practices worked out 



482 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

elsewhere. There is serious danger in transplanting. Were 
I to return to public school work, I would not venture to 
adopt in detail the plan of work which I so ardently carry- 
on in this University School. But much of it can be adapted. 
I am frequently asked to suggest some details for such adapta- 
tion. Space permits me to indicate briefly only two or three 
points for such adaptation. 

Types of adaptation. The daily schedule found in most 
schools offers one of the best beginning places. The problem 
is to substitute subject matter found in real life for the 
formal Three-R subject matter found in the traditional 
school, and to readjust method and management to corre- 
spond. The two principles given above must be in control. 
The usual daily schedule indicates the time allotments for 
the various subjects and the order of their appearance in the 
day's work. Emphasis is almost universally placed upon 
adherence to the time allotments, that the teacher interested 
in arithmetic may not slight the training of her pupils in 
language. The order of arrangement is largely left to the 
idiosyncrasies of the individual teacher. There seems to be 
no generally recognized principle to govern the arrangement. 
One teacher places arithmetic first in the morning because 
she considers her pupils most alert at that time. Another 
teacher places arithmetic last of the afternoon classes because 
she regards this the best means of keeping her pupils awake. 
In suggesting a modification in the schedule, I can thus be 
at liberty to change the order, if no great change is made in 
the time allotments. 

Let me use the day's schedule given on page 259 as a 
representative one in the traditional school. The program 
rearranged provides for approximately the same average 
number of minutes each day and indicates a slight re- 
adjustment to correspond more nearly with the original 
schedule. 



m CONCLUSION 



483 







Each'dat Slight Readjustmentb 


9.00- 9.20 


Geography 


20 


Unite by correlation or 


9.20- 9.48 


History 


28 


certain days 


9.48-10.18 


Hygiene — physical ed 


30 


Unite by correlation ob 


10.18-10.30 


Science 


12 


certain days 


10.30-10.45 


Recess 


15 




10.45-11.17 


Arithmetic 


32 




11.17-11.37 


Language 


20 


Unite by correlation on 
certain days 


11.37-11.57 


Spelling 


20 


Noon 








1.20-1.36 


Reference 


16 


30 Tuesday, Thursday 


1.36-1.54 


Writing 


18 


30 Monday, Wednesday 
Friday 


1.54-2.28 


Reading 


34] 


60 daily 


2.28-2.53 


Literature 


25 


2.53-3.05 
3.05-3.17 


Art 
Music 


12 

12 J 


24 alternate days 



This schedule places what may, for the present, be con- 
sidered the content subjects — geography, history, hygiene, 
science — early in the day. Form subjects — arithmetic, 
language, spelling, reference, WTiting — follow. Toward the 
close of the day are the leisure subjects — reading, literature, 
art, music. 

Let the teacher begin by following this schedule. But 
an enriched and timely treatment of these four content 
subjects will soon lead to a normal correlation that practically 
unites these four subjects into one. I recently observed a 
teacher using this schedule, in its original form. In the 
history period she discussed with her class the recent im- 
provements in travel from the Central States to the Pacific 
States. The time schedule cut short an interesting study. 
The nature of the problem called for a longer time and 
naturally united these four arbitrarily separated subjects. 
Recent tendencies to make arithmetic " practical " would 
readily permit a continuance of this problem of travel on 
the quantitative level; so also language, spelling, reference 



484 CHILD LIFE AND THE CURRICULUM 

work, writing — all as means of studying the problem of im- 
provement in travel. For a time each division of the study 
may receive its assigned number of minutes. But erelong it 
will be discovered that this natural correlation means greater 
economy, by reason of the normal motivation that governs 
in this case the more formal work. Teachers are coming to 
the conclusion that less time is needed to acquire the usual 
— and even greater — proficiency in the traditional subjects. 
More normal motivation and more normal conditions of 
work are needed. On this basis the reference work and 
writing, for which thirty -four minutes are allowed, may be 
adequately included in the forenoon. The forenoon sched- 
ule is now essentially that suggested on page 269, with 
games for lower grades indicated on page 384. 

The schedule above provides for approximately one hour 
and a half for what may be called leisure subjects, corre- 
sponding with the schedule on page 269. It makes no provi- 
sion for handwork. This could be provided by lengthening 
the school day, as provided in the schedule on page 384. 

The change in schedule suggested may be made with but 
little modification of the subject matter itself. The topics 
selected in the content subjects take the lead and provide 
the occasion for the study of the formal subjects. But the 
suggested change in schedule will encourage the recent 
tendency to make greater provision in our schools for the 
study of home, community, and national problems, indicated 
in the outlines in Chapter Seventeen. Thus this new subject 
matter gradually — and rather rapidly too — finds a place 
in the schools without abruptly disturbing the conservatism 
of the public. This public will welcome the change when 
it understands the increase in eflSciency made. 

A change in textbooks used will probably follow. Fewer 
texts but a much larger number of books will be gradually 
demanded. Pupils will learn to study more and that more 



IN CONCLUSION 485 

widely. Texts in the jorm subjects will probably be the 
first to give way, those in content subjects the last to yield. 
But such a change must be made slowly. 

Difficulties not serious. During the past few summers, 
I have kept a record of the many questions asked by superin- 
tendents and teachers as they have observed this work. 
The difficulties of carrying out such work are not so serious 
as they at first appear. Nearly twenty years ago Professor 
Dewey called attention to the conflict between our newer 
aims and standards and the external conditions under which 
our traditional work has been carried on. The school man 
with the least grain of skepticism toward new educational 
ventures is likely to magnify difficulties because he sees the 
new work only from the point of view of old conditions. 
We must be ready to give up our pet methods, devices, bits 
of equipment, and schemes of management, and be governed 
by a larger view. Such is the case in meeting new situations 
in community and national life. The modern school must 
conform. 



APPENDIX A 



Leisure Reading Books 

1. BOOKS READ BY A REPRESENTATIVE BOY IN GRADE II IN ONE YEAR 



DATE 




DATE 


TAKEN 


OUT 




RETURNED 


Sept. 


15 


Work-a-day Doings 


Sept. 24 


Sept. 


18 


The Brownie Primer 


Sept. 20 


Sept. 


24 


The Story Reader 


Oct. 6 


Oct. 


7 


The Circus Reader 


Oct. 26 


Oct. 


14 


Bunny Cotton-Tail, Jr. 


Oct. 24 


Oct. 


26 


Bunny Boy and Grizzly Bear 


Nov. 15 


Nov. 


15 


The Second Brownie Book 


Jan. 12 


Jan. 


3 


The Cat School 


Jan. 12 


Jan. 


12 


Puss in Boots, Reynard the Fox 


Jan. 19 


Jan. 


12 


Dame Wiggins of Lee 


Jan. 14 


Jan. 


14 


The Nixie Well 


Jan. 18 


Jan. 


18 


Little Eskimo 


March 2 


Jan. 


19 


Jack the Giant Killer 


Jan. 24 


Jan. 


25 


Second Fairy Reader 


March 2 


March 


L 3 


Two Little Indians 


March 16 


March 


I 9 


In Fahleland 


March 10 


March 13 


Hawk Eye 


March 13 


March 13 


Another Fairy Reader 


April 10 


March 17 


Eskimo Stories 


April 10 


April 


10 


Robinson Crusoe 


April 13 


April 


13 


Hopi, the Cliff Dweller 


April 14 


April 


14 


Mewanee, the Little Indian Boy 


April 25 


April 


23 


The Tale of Bunny Cotton-Tail 


April 25 


April 


25 


The Book of Nature Myths, 


May 1 


April 


25 


Fox's Indian Primer 


May 4 


May 


4 


Bee Martin and Other Tales 


May 11 


April 


7 


Little Bear 


April 24 


May 


11 


Overall Boys 


May 17 


May 


17 


Story Hour Readers, II 


May 20 



^ See Chapter Fifteen for discussion as to the use of these books. 

487 



488 APPENDIX A 



2. KEPRKSENTATIVE BOOKS SELECTED AT RANDOM FROM SIX LARGER 
GROUPS FROM WHICH PUPILS IN GRADES III TO VII MAKE SE- 
LECTIONS. EACH PUPIL READS AT LEAST TWO BOOKS FROM 
EACH GROUP WITHIN THE YEAR 

GROUP I 

Fables, Fairy Tales, Myths, Legends, Wonder Stories, Folk Tales 

Mbop. Fables 

Andersen. Fairy Tales 

MuLOCK. Adventures of a Brownie 

Allison. Sixteen Stories 

Tanner. Legends of the Red Man's Forest 

Wilson. Myths of the Red Children 

Baldwin. Fairy Stories and Fables 

Carroll. Alice in Wonderland 

Swift. Gulliver's Travels 

Carroll. Through the Looking Glass 

RusKiN. King of the Golden River 

Hawthorne. Three Golden Apples 

Mabie. Norse Stories 

Pratt. Legends of Norseland 

Griffis. Japanese Fairy Stories {The Firefly's Lovers) 

KiNGSLEY. Water-Babies 

WiLLisTON. Japanese Fairy Tales 

Pratt. Stories from Old Germany 

Defoe. Robinson Crusoe 

Wyss. Swiss Family Robinson 

Radford. King Arthur and His Knights 

Smith. ' In the Days of the Giants 

Stockton. Fanciful Tales 

GuERBER. Myths of Greece and Rome 

Barrie. Peier and Wendy 



APPENDIX A 489 

GBOUP n 

Nature 
BosTOCK. The Training of Wild Animals 
Chandler. In the Reign of the Coyote 
Kipling. Jungle Books 
Sewell. Black Beauty 
Long. Good Folk at School 
JoHONNOT. Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs 
Seton. Krag and Johnny Bear 
Miller, First Book of Birds 
DuTTON. In Field and Pasture 
Carter. Story of Brave Dogs 
London. The Call of the Wild 
GiLMORE. Birds through the Year 
Schwartz. Wilderness Babies 
Finch. Colliery Jim 
Weed. Farm Friends and Farm Foes 
Burroughs. Birds and Beasts : Sharp Eyes 
Baskett. The Story of the Fishes 
Beard. Curious Homes and their Tenants 
Johonnot. Glimpses of the Animate World 
Warner. A-Hunting of the Deer (Riverside) 
HoLBROOK. Book of Nature Myths 
MoRLEY. Butterflies and Bees 
Kelly. Short Stories of Our Shy Neighbors 
Blanchan. Birds that Hunt and are Hunted 
Blanchan. Birds Every Child Should Know 

group ni 

Industries, Inventions, Science 
Dutton. Trading and Exploring 
Iles. Leading American Inventors 
Foreman. Stories of Useful Inventions 

St. John. How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus 
Cochrane. The Wonders of Modern Mechanism 
Hale. Stories of Invention 



490 APPENDIX A 

Lane. Indiistries of Today 

DouBLEDAY. Stories of Inventors 

MowRY. American Inventions and Inventors 

Bbigham. From Trail to Railway 

Jenks. Electricity for Young People 

Baker. Boys' Book of Inventions 

Collins. The Wireless Man 

WiLLLAMS. How it Works 

Burns. The Stories of Great Inventions 

HowDEN. The Boys' Book of Steamships 

Slauson. The Motor Boat: Its Selection, Care, and Use 

RocHELEAU. Great American Industries — Transportation, etc.. 

Manufactures 
Williams. The Wonders of Mechanical Ingenuity 
Adams. Machinery Book for Boys 
Perry. Four American Inventors: Fulton, Whitney, Morse, 

Edison 
Marriott. Uncle Sam's Business 
Carter. When Railroads Were New 
RoLT- Wheeler. The Boy with the United States Foresters 
Daring. The Furniture People 

GROUP IV 

Character Study — Fiction 

Hale. The Man Without a Country 

HowELLs. Boys' Life 

MuLOCK. John Halifax, Gentleman 

Dickens. Little Nell 

Wiggin. Story of Patsy 

Lamb. Tales from Shakespeare 

Alcott. Little Women 

Kipling. Captains Courageous 

Scott. Quentin Durward; The Talisman 

Johnston. The Little Colonel 

Trowbridge. The Kelp-Gatherers 

Canfield. The Boys of Rincon Ranch 



APPENDIX A 491 

Stevenson. Treasure Island 

Burnett. Little Princess 

Sidney. Five Little Peppers (Series) 

Bakry. What Paul Did 

Crockett. The Raiders 

Cooper. The Deerslayer 

Spyri. Heidi 

Martineau. The Peasant and the Prince 

Young. When We Were Wee 

Drysdale. The Young Supercargo 

Johnston. Two Little Knights of Kentucky 

Foster. Mary 'n' Mary 

Jackson. Wee Winkles 

ToMLiNSON. The Young Defenders 

GROUP V 

Travel, including (1) Sightseeing, (2) Exploration, Adventure, 
(3) Scenery, (4) Manners, Customs 

Campbell. Story of Little Metzu, the Japanese Boy 

Perkins. The Japanese Twins 

BoYESEN. Boyhood in Norway 

KuNG. Moni, the Goat Boy 

Schwartz. Five Little Strangers 

McDonald and Dalrymple. Little People Everywhere 

Earle. Home Life in Colonial Days 

Rappoport. Home Life in Russia 

Powers. Stories of Indian Days 

Moran. Kwahu, the Hopi Indian Boy 

Morris. Home Life in All Lands 

Griffis. Japan in History 

Davis. Pappina, the Little Wanderer 

Dawson. German Life in Town and Country 

Pratt. Stories of Northern Europe 

Chamberlain. How We Travel 

Kbout. Two Girls in China 

Abbott. RoUo on the Rhine 



492 APPENDIX A 

Wilson. Rambles in Colonial Byways 
Earle. Stage Coach and Tavern Days 
Stakr. Strange Peoples 
CoE. Our American Neighbors 
Gkenfell. Adrift on an Ice Pan 
Eastman. Indian Child Life 
Otis. Antoine of Oregon 

GROUP VI 

History and Biography 
Eggleston. Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans 
Hale. Boy Heroes 
Baldwin. Abraham Lincoln 

Andrews, Ten Boys Who Lived on the Road from Long Ago 
Price. Lads and Lassies of Other Days 
ToMLiNSON. Boys of the Revolution 
KiNGSLEY. Four American Explorers 
Burton. Four American Patriots 
Headley. Washington and His Generals 
Haaren. Famous Men of the Middle Ages 
Brooks. Stories of the Old Bay State 
Whitney and Perry. Four American Indians 
NicoLAY. Boy's Life of U. S. Grant 
McMuRRY. Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley 
Mabie. Heroes Every Child Should Know 
Guerber. The Story of the English 
Townsend. Lives of the Presidents, Vols. I and II (Young People's 

Library) 
Williams. SoTtie Successful Americans 
DuTTON. Little Stories of France 
Scudder. George Washington 
Moores. Christopher Columbus for Boys and Girls 
Custer. The Boy General 

Eggleston. Stories of American Life and Adventure 
DuTTON. Little Stories of England 
Livingstone. Glimpses of Pioneer Life. Our Holidays (Retold 

from St. Nicholas) 



APPENDIX B 

List of Books Referred to in Observation Studies in Grade I 
(This list is representative of books used in Grade 11) 

Aldine Readers, 1, 11 

Alger. Primer of Work and Play 

Alexander. Child Classics Primer 

Art Literature Reader, I and 11 

Arnold Primer 

Atwater. Stories from the Poets 

Bailey. The Children's Hour 
Bailey. Firelight Stories 
Bailey and Ehrman. Songs of Happiness 
Bailey and Lewis. For the Children's Hour 
Baker's Action Primer 
Baldwin. Fairy Reader 
Baldwin. Fairy Stories and Fables 
Baldwin and Bender. Readers, 1, 11 
Bass. Animal Life 
Bass. Plant Life 
Beebe. Picture Primer 

Beebe and Kingsley. The First Year Nature Reader 
Beeson. Child's Calendar Beautiful 
Bible 

BiGHAM. Stories of Mother Goose Village 
Blaisdell. Cherry Tree Children 
Blanchan. Birds that Hunt and are Hunted 
Blanchan. Eastern Birds Every Child Should Know 
Blodgett. First Reader 
Boyle. Outdoor Secrets 
Braden. a Little Book of Well-known Toys 
Brooks' First Reader 
Brown. Plant Baby and Its Friends 
Brown. Stories of Woods and Fields 
Bryant. How to Tell Stories to Children 

493 



494 APPENDIX B 

Bryant. Poetry of Flowerland 
Bryant. Stories to Tell to Children 
BucKESTGHAM. SoTigs foT Children 
Burroughs. Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers 

Carpenter. Work That is Play 

Carroll and Brooks Reader 

Chase. Friends of the Fields 

Chase. Plant Babies and Their Cradles 

Chase. Some of Our Flower Friends 

Chase. Stories from Animal Land 

Chase. Stories of Birdland 

Child Classics, III 

Child Life Reader, 1, U 

Child Literature, 1, 11 

Christy and Shaw. Pathways in Nature and Literature 

Clyde and Wallace. Through the Year 

CoE. The First Book of Stories for the Story Teller 

Coe. The Second Book of Stories 

CoNANT. The Children's Year 

Cyr's Graded Art Readers, I 

Cyr's Readers, II, HE 

Dana. How to Know Wild Flowers 
Davis. Nature Stories for Youngest Readers 
Dodge. Rhymes and Jingles 
Dodge. When Life is Young 

Eddy. Friends and Helpers 
Eldridge. a Child's Reader in Verse 
Eliot. Poetry for Children 
Elson. Primary School Reader, I, II, III 

Field. Love Songs of Childhood 
Ford. Nature's Byways 
FouLKE. Twilight Stories 

Galbert. The Expression Primer 
Gardner. Work Thai Is Play 



APPENDIX B 496 

Gaynob. Songs and Scissors 

Gaynob. Songs of the Child World, I 

Geobge. Songs in Season 

Gordon. Readers I, II 

Graded Classics, II 

Graded Literature Readers, II 

Graded Poetry, IV 

Gbiel. Glimpses of Nature for Little Folks 

Gboveb. Outdoor Primer 

Gboveb. Folklore Stories 

Groves. Magnolia Primer 

Halibubton. Playmates 

Hammett and Company. Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories 

HLaebis. Uncle Remus : The Rabbit and the Tar Baby 

Hazaed. Three Years with the Poets 

Heart of Oak Readers, I and EL 

Heath. Readers, 1, 11 

Hiawatha Primer 

Hicks. Nature and History Stories 

HoLBBOOK. The Book of Nature Myths 

HoLBEOOK. Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades 

Holton Primer 

Holton-Curry Readers, I, II 

HoESFOBD. Stories of Our Holidays 

Houghton Mifflin Company. Beginner's Primer, I 

Houghton Mifflin Company. Verse and Prose for Beginners 

HowAED. Dick Whittington and Other Stories 

Howe Primer, I 

HowelVs Story Book 

Howxjston. Cat Tails and Other Tales 

HoxiE. A Kindergarten Story Book 

Jenks AND Rust. Song Echoes from Childland 
Jenks AND Walkeb. Songs and Games for Little Ones 
Jones Readers, I, H, HI 

Kelly. Introduction to Leaves from Nature's Study Book 
Kelly. Short Stories of Our Shy Neighbors 



496 APPENDIX B 

Ketchum and Rice. Our Story Reader 
Ketes. Stories and Story Telling 
Klingensmith. Household Stories for Little Readers 
Knowlton. Nature Songs for Children 

Lane. Stories for Children 

Lange. How to Know the Wild Birds of Missouri 

Language Reader, 1,11 

Lights to Literature, I, II 

Lindsay. Mother Stories 

Little Kingdom Reader, Primer, I 

LoGiE AND Uecke. The Story Reader 

Lovejoy. Nature in Verse 

Lucas. A Book of Verses for Children 

Lucia. Peter and Polly 

Mabie. Fairy Tales Every Child Should Knoio 

McCuiiLOUGH. Little Stories fen- Little People 

McMahon. Rhyme and Story Primer 

McMuKRY. Classic Stories for Little Ones 

McMuKRT AND CooK. Songs of the Tree Top and Meadow 

Merrill Readers, I and II 

MiEssNER AND Fox. Art Song Cycles 

Miller. First Book of Birds 

Miller. True Bird Stories 

Milton Bradley Company. Half a Hundred Stories 

Morse Reader, I 

Moses. Rhythmic Action Plays and Dances 

Mother Goose 

Murray. Storyland 

Murray. Wide Awake Primer, I 

Nash, ^sop and Mother Goose 
Neidlinger. Small Songs for Small Singers 
Nelson. Science Readers, 1, U 
New Century Readers, 1, 11 
New Sloan Reader, 1, U 



APPENDIX B 497 

O'Gradt and Throop. The Teacher's Story Teller's Book 
Olcott. Good Stories for Great Holidays 
O'Shea. Six Nursery Classics 
O'Shea. The Tales of Mother Goose 

Parker. Our Friends the Birds 

PiERSON. Among the Farmyard People 

PiERSON. Among the Forest People 

PiERSON. Among the Meadow People 

Potter. The Story of Peter Rabbit 

PouLSSON. Finger Plays 

PotJLSsoN. Holiday Songs 

PouLssoN. In the Child's World 

PouLSSON and Smith. Songs of a Little Child's Day 

Pratt. Legends of the Red Children 

Pratt. Little Flower Folks 

Progressive Road to Reading, I, II 

Reading Literature Readers, Primer I, II 

Rich. The Singing Leaves 

Riley and Gaynor. Lilts and Lyrics 

Riley and Gaynor. Playtime Songs 

Riley and Gaynor. Songs of the Child World 

Riverside Readers, Primer, I, II 

Robinson. At the Open Door 

Robinson. Skyward and Back 

Rossetti. Poems for Children 

Seegmiller. Little Rhymes for Little Readers 

Sharp. The Fall of the Year 

Sherman. Little Folk Lyrics 

Silver Song Series, I 

SiMMS. Child Literature ^ 

Skinner. Dramatic Stories 

Skinner and Lawrence. Little Dramas 

Sneath, Hodges, Stevens. The Golden Ladder 

Smith, E. Modern Music Series, Primer, I 

Smith, E. Songs for Little Children, II 



498 APPENDIX B 

Sprague Classic Readers, I, II, III 

Standard Catholic Reader, II 

Stark. Wild Flowers Every Child Should Know 

Stepping Stones to Literature Reader, II 

Stevenson. A Child's Garden of Verses 

Stickney. Earth and Sky, I, II 

Stickney. Pets and Companions 

Stokes. Ten Common Trees 

Story Hour Reader, I, II 

Strong. All the Year Round 

Summers. Reader, Primer, 1, 11 

Summers. Thought Reader, I 

Taylor. Rhymes for Children 

Thaxter. Stories and Poems for Children 

Tower. Gold Nuggets of Literature 

Troeger. Harold's First Discoveries, 1 

Troeger. Nature Study Readers, I, IE 

Turner. Ea^y Stories 

Turner. Our Common Friends and Foes 

Turner. Short Stories 

Turner. Stories for Young Children 

Turpin. Classic Fables 

TuRPiN. Rose Primer 

Varney. The Robin Reader 

Varney. Story Plays, Old and New 1, 11 

Warren. Nature from September to June 
Wilson. Nature Study, I, II 
Wood. Children's First Story Book 



APPENDIX C 

List op Books Used in the Study of Thanspobtation 

(Grade VI) 

Adams. Harper's Machinery Book for Boys 
American Poets 

Arabian Nights, Sinbad's Voyage 
Ashley. American Government 

Badlam. Views in Africa 

Baker. Boys' Book of Inventors 

Bakeb. Boys' Second Book of Inventions 

Beach Patrol 

Blaich. Three Industrial Nations 

BoGABT. Economic History of the United States 

BouENE AND Benton. Introductory American History 

Bbigham. From Trail to Railway 

Bueton. New Era United States History 

Carpenter's Geographical Readers 

Caeboll. Around the World, II, IV, V 

Cabteb. When Railroads Were New 

Chambeblain. How We Travel 

Child Life Readers 

Clabk. The Government 

Cochbane. The Wonders of Modern Mechanism 

CocHEANE. Romance of Industry and Invention 

CoMAN. Industrial History of the United States 

CooPEB. Animal Life in Sea and on Land 

Defoe. Robinson Crusoe 
DouBLEDAY. Stories of Inventors 
Dbyee. High School Geography 
Dunn. The Community and the Citizen 

Eaele. Stage Coach and Tavern Days 

Gaenett. Navigable Rivers of the United States 
Geobge. China and Japan 

4d» 



500 APPENDIX C 

Graded Literature Reader, IV 

Graded Poetry, III 

Great American Industries, Transportation 

GuERBEB, The Story of the English 

Gtjitteau. Preparing for Citizenship 

Hall. The Boy Craftsman 
Heath Reader, IV, V 
Highroads of Geography, IV, V 
HowDEN. The Boys' Book of Steamships 

James and Sanford. Our Government 
Johnson. American Railway Transportation 
Johnson. Elements of Transportation 
Johnson. Ocean and Inland Water Transportation 

Kathleen in Ireland 

King's Advanced Geography ^ 

King's Geographical Readers, 11, III, V 

Krout. Two Girls in China 

Knox. Boy Travelers: Great Britain; Russia; Southern Europe 

Mace's School History of the United States 

Marriott. How Americans are Governed 

Mar WICK and Smith. The South American Republics 

Maule. The Boy's Book of New Inventions 

McDonald. Manuel in Mexico 

Montgomery. English History 

Moore. Industrial History of the American People 

Morris. Home Life in All Lands, II 

Morton. Navigation for the Amateur 

Morton's Advanced Geography 

Moses. The Government of the United States 

MowRY. American Inventions and Inventors 

Murchi's Science Readers, IV and V 

Natural Advanced Geography 
NiDA. City, State, and Nation 



APPENDIX C 501 

Parker. Information Reader 
Parton. Captains of Industry 
PiERCY. Great Inventions and Discoveries 
Popular Science Reader 

Rappoport. Home Life in Russia 

Redway. Commercial Geography 

RocHELEATJ. Geography of Commerce and Industry 

RocHELEAU. Geography of Commerce 

Roddy. Geography 

Romance of Industry and Invention 

Seabury. Porto Rico 

Series. Strange Lands Near Home 

Series. Toward the Rising Sun — Under Sunny Skies 

Series. The Wide World 

Slauson. The Motor Boat: Its Selection, Care, and Use 

Smith. Commercial and Industrial Geography 

Spears. The Story of the American Merchant Marine 

Stepping Stones to Literature, V, VI 

Stories of India 

Stories of Indians, I, 132. The Building of the Ship 

Tarr and McMurry Geography, 11 

Tarr and McMurry Geography, III 

Thomas. An Elementary History of the United States 

Travels in the East 

Troeger. Nature Study Reader, IV 

Trotter. Geography of Commerce 

Trotter Geography, 137. Picture of Soo Locks; also see Index 

Two Chinese Girls 

Uncle Robert's Geography, IV 

Vanbergen. Story of Japan 

Warman. The Story of the Railroad 
WiLLETS. Workers of the Nation, 1, 11 



502 



APPENDIX C 



How It Works 

The United States Navy 

The Wonders of Mechanical Ingenuity 

How It Is Made / 

The Wonders of the Modern Railway 



Williams. 

WlLLL\MS. 

Williams. 

Williams. 

Williams. 

Wide World _ 

World's Progress 

World and Its People, Asia 

Wright. Industrial Evolution of the United States 



APPENDIX D 



Representative List of Songs Used 
(Grades I to ILL) 



September 

A Dewdrop 

Morning Glory 

The Crow 

The Leaves' Party .... 

Good Morning 

Why Mr. Gobbler Changed 

His Tune 

Jack Frost 

Morning Greeting .... 

The Raindrops 

The Little New Year . . . 
Good Morning, New Day . 
Baa-Baa ! Black Sheep . . 
Hickory Dickory Dock . . 
Little Jack Horner .... 
How Many Miles to Babylon 

Little Friends 

The Snowbird 

Mistress Mary 

Little Maid Pretty Maid . 
Hey-Diddle-Diddle . . . 
The Gingerbread Man . . 

Tick-Tock 

Little Pussy Willow . . . 
The Child and the Star . . 



Lidian .... 
Easter Carol . . 
Daffy-Down-Dilly 
The Blue Bird . 



NAME OF BOOK 



Song Echoes from Child Land 

E. Smith Primer . 

E. Smith Primer . 

Songs About Birds 

Songs About Birds 

Songs of Happiness 



42 
85 
74 
40 
64 
77 



70 

68 

112 

18 



Songs of Child World, II 

Songs of Child World, I 

Songs of Child World, I 

Songs of Happiness . . 

Songs and Games for Little Ones 55 

Songs and Games for Little Ones 81 

Lilts and Lyrics 1 

Lilts and Lyrics 14 

Lilts and Lyrics 14 

Lilts and Lyrics 3 

Nature Songs for Children . 77 
Nature Songs for Children . 42 

Lilts and Lyrics 12 

Lilts and Lyrics 4 

Lilts and Lyrics 8 

Playtime Songs 24 

Small Songs for Small Singers 54 
Songs for Children .... 
Songs for Little Children, for 
Kindergarten and Primary 

Schools 

Songs in Season 84 

Song Echoes from Child Land 14 
Songs of Child World ... 81 
Songs about Birds .... 9 
503 



14 



70 



504 APPENDIX D 

' BONO NAME OF BOOK TASB 

The Whip-poor-will . . . Songs about Birds .... 25 

The Red-Headed Woodpecker Songs about Birds .... 26 

The Blue-Jay Songs about Birds .... 30 

Swinging The Art Literature Reader, II 148 

Violet Songs of the Child World, I . 80 

Bird Songs Songs about Birds 

Grades IV to VU 

Unfurl the Starry Flag . . Rix Assembly Song Book . . 16 

Blacksmith Songs of Child World, No. I . 16 

September Plan Book, Autumn 

Bob White Songs in Season 31 

Star Spangled Banner . . School Praise and Song . . 102 

The Brownie Lilts and Lyrics 52 

The Brownies Songs of the Child World . . 102 

Thanksgiving Lilts and Lyrics 28 

Swinging Sheet Music 

Thanksgiving Hymn . . . Songs of Happiness .... 58 

Thanksgiving Song . . . Songs of Child World, I . . 67 

Autumn Songs of Child World, II . . 10 

Song of Loaf of Bread . . Songs of Child World, I . . 15 

Birds in the Night .... Songs Every One Should Know 64 

The Blacksmith .... Songs of Child World, I . . 16 

Coasting Songs of Child World, II . . 14 

Skating Songs of Child World, IL • • 16 

Maryland, My Maryland . Patriotic Songs 22 

Song of Iron Songs of Child World, I . . 14 

Little Boy Blue .... Songs by Eugene Field ... 65 

Voices of the Woods . . . School Praise and Song . . 147 

The World's Full of Beauty . School Praise and Song . . 129 

All Grades Together 
America 

Sweet Summer's Gone Away Songs in Season 65 

Swinging Songs in Season 42 

Leaves' Party Songs of Child World ... 64 

The Brownie . . , , . Lilts and Lyrics 52 



APPENDIX D 



505 



■oRa 
The Brownies . . 
Swinging .... 
Thanksgiving Hymn 
Thanksgiving . . 
Thanksgiving Song 
Birds in the Night 
Winding the Clock 
Shine Out, Oh Blessed Star . 
Merry Christmas Bells . . 
Christmas Carol . . . . 

The Chickadee 

A Day 

Sleighing Song . . . . . 

Sailor Song 

The Flag 

A Recipe for a Valentine 

Patriotic Hymn 

The Kite 

What Robin Told Me . . 

It Is Spring 

Rollicking Robin . . . . 

Spring Rain 

Mr. Wind and Madam Rain 

The Blue Bird 

The Slumber Boat . . . . 

Easter Carol 

Daffy-Down-Dilly . . . . 
Little Green Frog . . . . 

Trillium 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit . . . . 

Violet 

Dandelion 

The Snail 

Wild Roses 

Mother Goose Songs . . . 



NAMB OF BOOK 



Songs of Child World, I . . 102 

Sheet Music 

Songs of Happiness .... 58 

Lilts and Lyrics 28 

Songs of Child World, I . . 
Songs Everyone Should Know 
Songs of Child World, I . . 
Songs and Games for Little Ones 
Songs and Games for Little Ones 
Lilts and Lyrics . . . 
Songs of Happiness . . 
Nature Songs for Children 
Songs of Child World, I 
Songs of Child World, I 
Songs of Happiness . . 
Songs of Child World, 1 
Nature Songs for Children 
Songs of Happiness . . 
Nature Songs for Children 
Nature Songs for Children 
Nature Songs for Children 
Songs for Little Children 
Songs of Child World, II 
Songs in Season . . . 
Playtime Songs . . . 
Song Echoes from Child Land 
Songs of the Child World 
Playtime Songs 
Art Song Cycles, II 
Art Song Cycles, II 
Art Song Cycles, II 
Songs of Child World, I 
Songs in Season 
Art Song Cycles, II 
LUts and Lyrics 
Mother Goose Melodies 




67 
64 

100 
63 
69 
29 
50 
82 
70 
50 
70 
93 

102 
91 
38 
84 
48 
76 
12 
28 
14 
14 
81 
60 
39 



78 

134 

86 



APPENDIX E 



Representative List of Folk Dances 



Grades I, 11, III 



DANCE 

Shoemakers' Dance . . 
Chimes of Dunkirk . . 
Danish Dance of Greeting 
Children's Polka . . 
German Clap Dance 
Swedish Clap Dance . 
Ace of Diamonds . . 
Virginia Reel ^ . . . 
Lads and Lassies . . 
Pop Goes the Weasel . 
Bean Porridge Hot . . 
To Market, To Market 
Ride a Cock Horse . . 
Three Crows .... 
Hot Cross Buns . . . 
English Harvester's Dance 
Norwegian Mountain March 

I See You 

The Pigeon House . . . 
A Moonlight Walk . . . 



BOOK 

Crampton 
Crampton 
Crampton 
Crampton 
Crampton 



3 
1 

2 

4 

45 



Crampton 13 

Crampton 25 

Mari Hofer 24 

Mari Hofer ...... 41 

Harmony Tablet 



} Harrington and Farwell 



Crampton . . . 
Crampton . . . 
Crampton . . . 
Pederson and Boyd 
Pederson and Boyd 



Grades IV and V 

Lassies' Dance Crampton 

Swedish Clap Dance . . . Crampton 

Irish Jig Crampton 

Hopp Mor Annika .... Crampton 
German Clap Dance . . . Crampton 

Tantoli Crampton 

How-do-you-do Gilbert, American School of 

Dancing, Boston 
Irish Lilt Irish Wash Woman 

^ Any lively 4-4 time will do for this. 
506 



42 
25 
32 



11 

13 
52 
22 
45 
10 



APPENDIX E 



507 



Hungarian Peasant Dance 
Pop Goes the Weasel . . 
Ride a Cock Horse . . . 
Hot Cross Buns .... 
Swedish Schottische . . . 
Norwegian Mountain March 
To Market, To Market . 
Bro Bro Breda . . 
A Moonlight Walk . 
Bounding Heart . . 
Gustafs Health . . 
Salutation Dance 
Highland Schottische 
Reap the Flax . . 



BOOK FAGI 

Harmony Tablet 
Harmony Tablet 
Harrington and Farwell 
Harrington and Farwell 
Harmony Tablet (Girls) 

Crampton 18 

Harrington and Farwell 
Pederson and Boyd ... 10 
Pederson and Boyd ... 32 

Crawford 6 

Crawford 34 

Crawford 39 

Crawford 42 

Crampton 56 



Grades VI, 

Vineyard (Sheet Music) . . 

Dutch Dance 

Tyrolinne Dance .... 
Hungarian Peasant Dance . 
Swedish Schottische .... 
Irish Lilt (Irish Wash Woman) 

Irish Jig 

Highland Schottische . . . 
Hopp Mor Annika .... 
German Clap Dance . . . 
Swedish Clap Dance . . . 

Nickodickomdij 

Minuet (Beethoven Minuet) 
Norwegian Mountain March 

Gossiping Ella 

Bounding Heart 

Bleking 

Lottie Is Dead 

Hark, Hark, the Dogs do Bark 
Tarantella 



vn, and vin 

Crampton 11 

Harmony Tablet 
Harmony Tablet 
Harmony Tablet 
Harmony Tablet 
Harmony Tablet 

Crampton 52 

Crampton 20 

Crampton 22 

Crampton 45 

Crampton 13 

Crampton ...... 47 

Crampton 18 

Crawford 4 

Crawford 6 

Crawford 20 

Crawford 24 

Harrington and Farwell 2 

Burchenal 82 



508 APPENDIX E 

Folk-Dance Books 

BuRCHENAii. Folk Dances and Games. A. S. Barnes Company. 
Crampton. The Folk-Dance Book. A. S. Barnes Company. 
Crawford. Folk Dances and Games. A. S. Barnes Company. 
Harmony Tablet. 
Harrington and Farwell. Nursery Rhyme Dances, I and 11. 

Carl F. Ludwig. 
HoFER, Mari. Poptdar Folk Games and Dances. A. Flanagan 

Company. 
Pederson and Boyd. Folk Games and Gymnastic Play. Saul 

Brothers. 



APPENDIX F 

Representative Games 

excebpt from descriptions of games used in the university 
elementary school. the bean-bag game is represen- 
tative of indoor games for grades i, ii, iii. the 

"variations" described INDICATE THE POSSIBILITIES OP 
THE GAME. 

Bean Bags (Circles on the floor). 

Apparatus. The bags should be about 7 inches by 7 inches and 
contain about one pound of smooth beans. Pleasure in the game 
is increased if the bags are of various but harmonious colors. They 
may be ornamented by butterfly, bird, arrow, target, etc., worked in 
silk or yarn. 

Variations 

(One circle on the floor) 

1. A given distance between circle and toe-line for beginning 
players — e.g., in the first grade — the circle should be about two 
feet in diameter. The toe-line may well be about 5 feet from the 
circumference of the circle. Let each player toss from three to six 
bags. With the single circle the simplest and normal count would 
be one for each bag within the circumference. There is here only 
counting to be done. Simple addition may be involved in combin- 
ing the scores at the close. Counting, however, should be the pro- 
cess until the pupils quite incidentally discover the shorter process — 
addition. (Teachers will be quite liable to expect a second modi- 
fication to be the increase of the count per bag ; e.g., 2, 3, 4, etc. 
This would be natural in teaching "number," but there is no call 
for this by the nature of the game itself. There is no reason for 
scoring 2 for a bag which under the very same conditions counted 
1 before. Change in the numbers used must be due to change in the 
nature of the game. True, some children wUl find certain increased 
pleasure in using the count 3 instead of 1. This is^ wholly due to 
a feigned interest in numbers, probably given them by parents or 

609 



510 APPENDIX F 

elders. Such counts could be allowed for a time imder such con- 
ditions.) 

2. Change the distance between the circles and the toe-line. 
Increase in distance should increase the score for any bag tossed 
into the circle. There is, however, no occasion for this increase 
in score if all the players play from the same toe-liae. Difference 
in score should be allowed when difference in distance is at the 
option of the player ; e.g., at a distance of 4 feet, a score of 1 ; at 5 
feet, 2 ; at 6 feet, 3 ; etc. (The amount of variation in distance and 
the score admits of considerable study if any one finds it important 
in the interest of the game.) 

(Two concentric circles) 

It is clearly more difficult to land a bag in the inner-smaller circle. 
More credit should be allowed. The simplest case will be to allow 
two for the inner circle and one for the outer. But it is question- 
able if tivice the skill is needed for the inner circle. A less difference 
in skill is indicated by numbers of relatively less difference; e.g., 
3 and 4 respectively. Pupils even in the second grade will discover 
this; and thus from this point — whenever it occurs — we must 
allow pupils to use various values, but we must not be too particular 
as to the exactness in relation between numbers used and skill rep- 
resented. 

3. Inner circle 2, outer circle 1. 

4. Inner circle 4, outer circle 3. 

(It would be out of place to use here 4 and 2 respectively. No 
advance is made over No. 3.) 

5. Inner circle 12, outer circle 5. 

(The relationship here is largely guesswork, and pupils should be 
allowed to select numbers according to their whims on these condi- 
tions : 

(1) If the majority agree, and the minority makes not too much 
objection. 

(2) If the numbers approach appropriate relationship to skill 
required. 

(3) If pupils can use such numbers or learn fairly well at that 
time to use them.) 



APPENDIX F 511 

Note. Teachers must be cautioned at this place not to insist upon selec- 
tion of numbers according to any logic of numbers. The game would surely 
be spoiled. The game is first — numbers merely serve in increasing the fun 
and possibilities of the game. 

6. Special count for the bull's-eye : An arbitrary extra credit 
may be allowed each bag lying over the center of the circles. 

Note. Up to this point generosity on the part of the players has estab- 
lished the custom of counting a bag touching the circumference of the circle 
as outside of that circle. But when using concentric circles, a bag lying on 
the circumference of the inner circle is clearly of more value than one wholly 
outside of that line. Pupils develop in such competitive games a desire to 
be more accurate in being fair. Thus in the use of two concentric circles 
a bag on the circumference of the circle is worth the value of the outer circle 
and also approximately one half the difference between the values of the two 
circles. 

Thus : 

7. One half the difference between the two values may be added 
to the value of the outer circle, for any bag lying on the circumfer- 
ence of the inner circle. 

Note. It is probable that a desire to be so accurate in measuring com- 
peting skill will not appear in the pupils until the third grade. It may well 
be introduced, however, at any time such interest is expressed. 

It will readily be noted that this fractional relationship may be- 
come more complicated. For example, if the bag rests three fourths 
over the inner circle, three fourths instead of one half of the differ- 
ence may be used. There is of course the danger here that fractions 
will be used at the expense of the game. Teachers who wish to 
emphasize arithmetic can take advantage of this situation. It is 
probable however that the fraction will be used only in one or two 
plays. An integral value will then be substituted ; e.g., one half 
the difference between eight and six would be one and thus a bag on 
the circumference would count seven and thereafter be thought of 
as such. 

With three or more concentric circles the game becomes more 
complicated. So also under other modifications possible. The real 



512 APPENDIX F 

fim in the game may then pass to the complications possible. This 
is perfectly legitimate for pupils more advanced and capable of meet- 
ing such situations. 

Thus: 

Varied complications : Bean bags may be used in various ways 
other than with circles on the floor and such variations may be listed 
here. 

8. Through a hoop : A hoop of approximately one foot in diam- 
eter is held in a vertical position by one or two pupils. At a dis- 
tance of from 4 to 10 feet (depending upon the strength and skill of 
the players) the toe-line is drawn. The players toss the bags 
through the hoop. Considerable muscular movement and control 
are here called ia play and thus the fun is increased. 

Modifications of this No. 8 may also be readily made; for ex- 
ample : 

(1) Varying distances of the toe-line give pupils a chance to select 
a closer range at lower count or a wider range at a higher count. 
This should be allowed pupils as individuals wish, even changing 
their choice in consecutive plays. 

(2) The number of bean bags may change. 

(3) A catcher may stand behind the hoop. This catcher may be 
chosen by the player as his partner and an extra count allowed the 
player for each bag caught. 

Note. In such a game, the more pupils participating, the better. 
More pupils are occupied, the progress of the game is quickened, and thus 
interest and fun are increased. 

9. Into the basket : An ordinary waste basket may be used. 
Distances of the toe-line may vary the amount of the counts as in- 
dicated in "variations" above. 

10. The oblique board : A square or oblong board, with square 
or round openings, of various sizes may be placed in an oblique 
position on the floor as a target. The counts vary inversely as the 
size of the holes through which the bean bags fall. Counts may 
vary also as the distances of the toe-line from the board. 



APPENDIX F 513 

11. Squares or circles : Let squares or circles of various sizes be 
drawn near the center of the room. The arrangement is not impor- 
tant. Assign values inversely as the size. A circle or square sur- 
rounding the various squares or circles will serve as a toe-line. 
This line should be at a suitable distance. Players are free to choose 
such a place on the toe-line as will insure them the best coxmt. 

Note. This game admits of many other variations which are being de- 
veloped at the University Elementary School. 



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Company, 1913. 

The Problem of Vocational Education. Houghton Mifflin 



Company, 1910. 

SoLDAN, F. Louis. "Shortening the Period of Elementary School- 
ing." Educational Review, 25 : 168-181. 1903. 
Spakgo, J. The Bitter Cry of the Children. The Macmillan Com- 
pany, 1909. 
Staples, O. B. "Is There a Relation between the Amount of 
Schooling and Financial Success in Life?" Elementary School 
Teacher, 10 : 261-269. 1910. 
Starch, D. Educational Measurements. The Macmillan Com- 
pany, 1916. 
Stone, C. W. Arithmetical Abilities and Some Factors Determining 

Them. Teachers College, 1908. 
Stout, J. E. The High School. D. C. Heath & Co., 1914. 
Strayer, G. D. a Brief Course in the Teaching Process. The 

Macmillan Company, 1911. 
Strayer, G. D., and Norsworthy, Naomi. How to Teach. The 

Macmillan Company, 1917. 
Strayer, G. D., and Thorndike, E. L. Educational Administra- 
tion. The Macmillan Company, 1913. 
Surveys (Only a few of the leading surveys are here listed.) 
Baltimore, Maryland (1911). 
Butte, Montana (1914). 

Cincinnati, Ohio (1915) — Industrial Survey. 
East Orange, New Jersey (1912). 

Hammond, Indiana (1915) — People, Industries, and Schools. 
Indianapolis, Indiana (1917) — Vocational Education. 
Lane County, Oregon (1916). 
Leavenworth, Kansas (1915). 
Maryland (1912) — Rural. 

Minneapolis, Minnesota (1913) — Vocational Survey. 
Montgomery County, Maryland (1913). 
New Orleans (1914). 



528 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Surveys {continued). 

New York City (1912). 

Oakland, California (1915). 

Ohio (1914). 

Portland, Oregon (1913). 

Richmond, Virginia (1916) — Vocational Survey. 

Salt Lake City, Utah (1915). 

South Bend, Indiana (1914). 

Springfield, Illinois (1914). 

St. Louis, Missouri (1917). 

Vermont (1914). 

Wisconsin (1912) — Rural Schools. 
SuzZALLO, H. The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. Houghton 
Mifflin Company, 1911. 

The Teaching of Spelling. Houghton Mifflin Company, 

1911. 

Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. Houghton 

Mifflin Company, 1916. 
Thomas, F. W. The Apprentice Schools of the Santa Fe Railway 

System. National Education Association, 175-185. 1914. 
Thorndike, E. L. "The Elimination of Pupils from School." 

Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 4, 1907. 

Educational Psychology. Teachers College, 1913-1914. 

"The Future of the College Entrance Examination Board." 

Educational Review, 31 : 470-483. 1906. 

Individuality. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911. 

The Principles of Teaching. A. G. Seiler, 1906. 

An Introduction to the Theory of Mental and Social Measure- 
ments. Science Press, 1904. 

"The Measurement of Ability in Reading." Teachers Col- 



lege Record, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1914. 
TiDYMAN, W. F. The Teaching of Spelling. World Book Company, 

1918. 
Travis, T. The Young Malefactor. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 

1912. 
Tyler, J. M. Growth and Education. Houghton Mifflin Company, 

1907. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 529 

Vincent, G. E. The Social Mind and Education. The Macmillan 
Company, 1897. 

Weeks, Ruth. The People's School. Houghton Mifflin Company, 
1912. 

Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. Warwick 
& York, 1910. 

WiLLiSTON, A. L. Types of Schools for Different Pupils. National 
Education Association, pages 567-571. 1913. 

Wilson, H. B. and G. M. The Motivation of School Work. Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company, 1916. 

Wilson, W. H. The Evolution of a Country Community. The 
Pilgrim Press, 1912. 

Withers, J. W. How the Course of Study Should Be Determined. 
National Education Association, pages 235-243. 1914. 

WooDHULL, J. T. "General Science." Educational Review, 48: 
298-300. 1914. 

Woodward, C. M. "Age of Withdrawal from Public Schools." 
Report, Commissioner of Education, 1161-1170. 1894-1895. 

"When and Why Pupils Leave School." Report, Commis- 
sioner of Education, 1364-1374. 1899-1900. 

YocuM, A. D. The Determinants of the Course of Study. National 
Education Association, 223-235. 1914. 

Young, J. W. A. The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary 
and Secondary School. Longmans, Green & Co., 1907. 

ZuEBLiN, C. American Municipal Progress. The Macmillan Com- 
pany, 1916. 



INDEX 



Namea of writers and other authorities quoted or cited are in capitals and small capitala ; 
references to topics presented in whole chapters are in boldface type. 

Abstractions, generalizations, 197- Arithmetic, 



198, 418-419. 
Abuse, 

of industries, 187-193. 
of motives, 432-436. 
of play, 178-187, 313-316. 
of subject matter, 422-424. 
Activity, 

a cause of withdrawal from school, 

44, 50. 
of children, 5-7, 149-150, 221. 
and the curriculum, 80, 167-168, 

202. 
of the gang, 154-155. 
Addams, Jane, 

on the boys' gang, 154. 
on employees in industry, 104. 
on interest of child in life of pro- 
duction, 65. 
on places of amusement, 264. 
on the workingman and the com- 
munity, 97. 
Adjustment, 

and the amoeba, 279. 

as a need, 25, 220-221. 

to the community, 92, 266, 279- 

281. 
and observation, 277-281. 
Administration of schools, 15, 238. 
Admission requirements to univer- 
sity, 118-119. 
Adult, the, 

in contrast with the child, 280-281. 
point of view, 137-138. 
and the present, 11-13, 150. 
Adventure. See Books, classification 

of, and methods of reading. 
Agricultural education, 122. 
Aim in elementary education. See 

Purpose. 
Alphabet, 139. 
Apparatus, 379. 
Apperception, 24-25. 
Apprenticeship schools, 115-116, 202. 



attempts to make practical, 86, 
113, 127-128, 133, 188-193. 

beginnings of, 26, 418. 

and boys, 6-7. 

criticism of, 57, 286. 

devices for teaching, 312, 429-430. 

and formal discipline, 28, 452. 

measurement of ability in, 467- 
468. 

nature of, 175. 
Arithmetical ability, measurement of, 

467-468. 
Artificiality, 

in correlation, 33-34. 

in motivation, 433, 438i 

of the school, 435. 
Assignments, 18. See also Home 

work. 
Attendance, 

compulsory, 67, 142. 

and organization, 248. 

See also Withdrawal. 
Average and the individual, 12, 57, 

202. 
Atres, L. p., 

on the retarded pupil, 144-146. 

on withdrawal, 45, 48-49. 

Baglet, W. C, 
on discipline, 272. 
on minimum essentials, 78-74, 
on social efiiciency, 85-86. 

Basedow, on method, 427. 

Batavia (111.) schools, 125. 

Batavia (N. Y.) system, 266. 

Being a Boy, 3. 

Betts, G. H., on the recitation, 
426. 

BoBBiTT, J. F., on story material, 
344. 

Bone, H. A., on arithmetic in life, 
189-190. 

Book reports, 362-363. 



531 



532 



INDEX 



Books, 

chosen by pupils, 354. 

classification of, 348. 

in lower grades, 346. 

in upper grades, 347. 

lists of. Appendix A, B, C. 

methods of reading, 349-354. 

number read by different grades, 
363-364. 

pedagogical, 5. 

range of, 355-356, 468-478. 
Boy Scouts, 7, 132. 
Boys and girls, 

active, 4, 5-7. 

appreciation of, 3, 5. 

and average, 207. 

and curriculum, 202. 

See also Gang. 
Briggs, T. H., on grammar, 59. 
Brooks, S. D., on withdrawals, 43-44. 
Bryant, S. C, on the humorous 

story, 354. 
" Busywork, " 67, 421. 
Butler, N. M., on social efficiency, 

85. 
Butte, Montana, Survey, 55. 

Caldwell, O. W., on elementary 

science, 129. 
Camp Fire Girls, 7. 
Carnegie Foundation, 444. 
Carver, T. N., 

on farm life, 99. 

on stages of society, 90. 
Character. See Moral. 
Charters, W. W., 

on function of subject matter, 423. 

on grammar, 59. 

on motivation, 370. 
Chicago City Club, 177. 
Chicago University admission, 118- 

119. 
Child, 

Chapter One. 

in contrast with adult. See Adult. 

labor laws, 42. 

life, 140-141, 167, 174, 277-278, 
291. 

and organization, 243. 

organizations relating to, 42-43. 

See also Boy and Gang. 



Classification, 
of games, 322. 
of pupils, 215. 
Claxton, p. p., on problems of 
community and national life, 
462-463. 
Columbia City Schools, 446-455. 
Community, the, 

and school attendance, 40, 42, 

48. 
and school work, 55, 61, 151. 
See also Social problems and the 
curriculum. 
Competition, 231. 

Compulsory attendance. See At- 
tendance. 
Comstock, a. B., 191. 
Concrete, the, and the Curriculum, 

Chapter Nine. 
Conduct. See Moral behavior. 
Conference. See Recitation. 
Conservatism, 84, 121. 
Consumers' League of Hartford, 176- 

177. 
Continuation schools, 121, 122, 288. 
Cook, W. A., on spelling, 58. 
CoRNMAN, O. P., on spelling, 58. 
Correlation, 

in community life, 203, 246-247. 
in the Three R's, 30, 32-35. 
Country life and the country school, 

98-101, 124-125. 
Course of study. See Curriculum 

and Subject matter. 
Courtis, S. A., 

on average child and social life, 

57. 
on economy of time, 215. 
Cubberley, E. p., on Butte Survey, 

55. 
Culture, 

and attitude toward work, 64, 

274-275. 
and liberal arts, 287. 
Culture-epoch theory, 22, 23-27. 
Curriculum related to child life, 
life activities as subject matter, 

227-229. 
making of, Chapter Five, 
principles governing. Chapters 
Eight to Twelve. 



INDEX 



533 



Curriculum related to child life, 
subjects for study, 

observation, Chapter Thirteen, 
play. Chapter Fourteen, 
stories, Chapter Fifteen. 
handwork. Chapter Sixteen, 
outlines, Chapter Seventeen. 
Curriculum, the traditional, 

assigned justification for, Chapter 

Two. 
changes in, 72-74. 
characterized, 66-68. 
criticized by adults. Chapter Four, 

218. 
criticized by pupils. Chapter Three. 
emphasis upon subject matter, 

419-424. 
integration of studies, 250-252. 
a substitute for, 277. 
See also Three R's. 
Curtis, H. S., on play, 311, 328. 

Daily program. See Schedule. 

Dean, A. D., 86, 114. 

Dearborn, W. F., on transfer of 

eflBciency, 160. 
Departmental work, 16, 224. 
Deportment, 271. 
Device, 

industrial education as a, 289-290. 
nature study as a, 283. 
play as a, 178-187. 
Devices, 8, 33, 51, 427-430. 
Devitey, J., 
quoted on 

child and child life, 167, 174, 

291. 
culture-epoch theory, 23. 
home and community life, 92, 

150-151. 
measurement, 443. 
method, 424. 
play, 311. 
referred to, on 

curriculum, 50, 420. 

new and old educatioti, 62, 78, 

227. 
play, 1 14. 
Diacritical marks in reading, 139, 

429. 
Discipline, 272. 



Draper, A. S., on traditional school, 

63, 218. 
DrUl, 55, 67. 
Dunn, A. W., on social studied, 

60. 
DuTTON, S. T., and Snedden, D., 
on arithmetic, 192. 
on integration of studies, 250-251. 

Economy in education, 32, 141, 144- 

147, 176, 215, 221, 237. 
Educational movements, Chapter 

Seven, 60-62. 
Educational psychology, 87. 
Educational reformers, 174. 
Educational theories, 22. 
Educator and sociologist, 87-88. 
Efficiency, 

demanded by society, 176, 194. 

immediate and late, 57, 166. 

in life, the school and, 40-41, 96- 

98. 
of school and withdrawal, 43-44. 
and secondary schobl tendencies, 

120-121. 
Effort, 270. See also Work. 
Eikenberry, W. L., on general 

science, 129. 
Elective system, 223-224. 
Elementary vs. introductory courses, 

143-147. 
Elementary education and industrial 

development, 176. 
Elementary pupils in high schools, 

449-450. 
Elimination, 50. See also With- 
drawal. 
Ellwood, C. a., 

on moral standards, 101. 
on rural life, 98. 
on social problems, 79, 105. 
Ely, R. T., on social changes, 88-91. 
Emmy Lou, 4. 
Environment, a study of, Chapter 

Thirteen. 
Ethical Culture School, 111-112. 
Examinations, 18, 53, 214-215, 245. 
Excursion, as a factor in study, 297- 

298. 
Experiment on the curriculum, 442- 

444. 



534 



INDEX 



Fables. See Books, classifica,tion of, 
and methods of reading. 

Fads and frills, 194. 

Fairhope School, 113. 

Fairy tales. <See Books, classifica- 
tion of, and methods of read- 
ing. 

Farm Life. See Country life. 

Farmville Normal School, 117. 

Fatigue, 249, 256. 

Fiction. See Books, classification of, 
and methods of reading. 

FiSKE, J., on adjustment, 279-281. 

Flexner, a., on a modern school, 
63. 

Folk dancing as leisure, 268, Appen- 
dix E. 

Forbush, W. B., 
on the gang, 258. 
on traditional curriculum, 65-66. 

Formal discipline, 27-32, 59, 158- 
160, 367. 

Formality, 34, 175, 438. 

Francis W. Parker School (Chicago), 
112, 190-191. 

Francis W. Parker School (San 
Diego), 113. 

Freeman, F. N., on measuring read- 
ing, 461. 

Fun, 307-308, 321, 328. See also 
Chapter on Play. 

Gager, C. S., 128. 

Games, Appendix F. See also Play. 

Gang, 154-156. See also Boys. 

Gary (Indiana) schools, 125. 

Gayley, C. M., on play, 186, 309. 

General Training. *See Formal dis- 
cipline. 

Generalizations, abstractions, 197- 
198, 418-419. 

Geography, 29, 33, 285-286, 312, 
418. 

Girls. See Boys. 

GoMPERs, S., on traditional school, 
64. 

Gould, F. J., on moral education, 
198-199. 

Grades (as marks), 446-457. 

Graduation from Elementary School, 
245. 



Grammar, 59, 188, 418, 452. 
Graves, F. P., on present-day 

tendencies, 86. 
Greenwood, J. M., on retardation, 

76-77. 
Grogs, K., on play, 308, 330. 
Guidance. <See Subject matter ; also 

Vocational. 



Habit, 217, 345. 

Hall, G. S., on play, 310, 331, 333, 

334, 335. 
Handwork, Chapter Sixteen, 266. 
Hantjs, p. H., 
on culture, 177. 
on social efficiency, 85. 
on utilitarian aims, 62. 
on work and leisure, 265. 
Happiness, 307. 
Harvard University entrance, 118- 

119. 
Hetherington, C. W., on play 

activities, 324. 
Higher institutions affecting the 

lower, 110. 
Hill, A. Ross, 13, 143. 
HiLLEGAS, M. B., on Vermont sur- 
vey, 56. 
History and biography. See Books, 

classification of, and methods 

of reading. 
Holmes, Edmond, on traditional 

curriculum, 63. 
Holmes, H. W., on school subjects, 

67. 
Home and school, 150-154. 
Home life, 91-92, 103, 152-154, 273- 

274, 380. 
Home work, 61, 126, 193, 342-343, 

361. 
Hoover, Herbert, on problems of 

community and national life, 

461-462. 
Horace Mann School, 24, 33. 
Horn, E., on the recitation, 213, 214, 

230-231. 
Hornbook, 22, 428. 
Humor. See Books, classification of, 

arid methods of reading. 
Hyannis Normal School, 117. 



INDEX 



535 



Idleness and leisure, 7, 255-256. 
Incidental instruction, 437. See also 

whole of Chapter Eighteen. 
Incidental measurement, 464. See 
also whole of Chapter Nine- 
teen. 
Individual differences, Chapter Ten. 
Individual and society, 42, 88-89. 
Industrial education, 116, 124, 225, 

286-288. 
Industrial intelligence, 290-291, 296. 
Industrial life, 93, 104, 187, 419. 
Industrious attitude, 7, 162-166, 

272, 457-458. 
Initiative, 7, 164, 457. 
Instinct, 

and interest, 368. 
and play, 308-309. 
Interest, 

in the concrete, 65, 197-198. 
through correlation, 32-33. 
in culture epochs, 23. 
and motive, 415-416. 
in stories, 343-346. 
Invention, stories of. See Books, 
classification of, and methods 
of reading. 

James, W., on impression and ex- 
pression, 277-278, 280. 

Johnson, G. E., on play, 311-312, 
329. 

JUDD, C. H., 

on development, 220-221, 309-310. 

on motive, 415. 
Junior high school, 60, 125-126, 

224, 242-243, 295-296. 
Juvenile offenders, 154. 

Kellet, Flobence, 

on social problems, 96, 103. 
on traditional curriculum, 94. 
Kelly, J. K., on reading, 59-60. 
Kern, O. J., on country schools, 

124-125. 
Kerschensteineh, G., on moral 

training, 198. 
KiRKPATRicK, E. A., on individual 

differences, 220, 222. 

Labor organizations and children, 
42-43. 



Language, 29, 312, 342, 452. 
Learning to read, 139, 356-357. 
Leavitt, F. M., on industrial schools, 

225. 
Leavitt, F. M., and Brown, Edith, 

on prevocational classes, 289- 

290. 
Legends. See Books, classification 

of, and methods of reading. 
Leisure, 

general discussion, Chapter 

Twelve. 
reading in spare time, 362. 
and stories, 337-343. 
time, 96-104. 
Library, 17, 18, 298, 359-360. 
Life activities, 31, 53, 85, 227-229, 

252. 
Lindsey, Judge, on wholesome occu- 
pation, 156. 

McMuBRY, C. A., on course of study, 

193. 
McMuRRY, F. M., 
quoted on 

classroom instruction, 217. 
nature of the curriculum, 62- 

63, 66, 138, 153, 156-157. 
principles of the curriculum, 192. 
referred to, on 

curriculum, 72, 77. 
general notion, 31. 
motivation, 55-56. 
standard of values, 53. 
Martin, G. M., 4, 65. 
Maryland rural survey, 55. 
Material. See Curriculum, Subject 

matter. Three R's. 
Measurement, Chapter Nineteen. 
Mental attitude, 93-96, 100-101, 415. 
Method, 

general discussion, Chapter Eight- 
een, 
of handwork, 377-379. 
and interest, 51, 149-150. 
and play, 332—333. 
and problem, 56, 78. 
of study, 296-300, 457. See also 

Study, 
of teaching, 73-74, 133, 204, 229- 
231, 283, 369-371. 



536 



INDEX 



Minimum essentials, 73-74, 80, 245, 

246. 
Minneapolis public schools, 133. 
Minneapolis vocational survey, 176. 
Mischief and play, 309. 
Montessori Method, 182-183. 
Moral 

behavior, 9-10, 257. 

training, 96-97, 101-103, 198-200. 
Morrill Land Grant Act, 123. 
Mothers' Club, 151. 
Motion pictures, 129-130. 
Motivation, 

general discussion, Chapter 
Eighteen. 

as a force, 141, 332, 369-370. 

and improvement, 73-74, 289-290. 

and interest, 51, 62, 147-148, 343. 

and measurement, 464-465. 

and play, 318-319. 
MuNHOE, J. p., on traditional curric- 
ulum, 64. 
Museum, 17. 

Music, 339-340, Appendix D. 
Myths. See Books, classification 
of, and methods of reading. 

Nature. See Books, classification of, 

and methods of reading. 
Nature study, 281-284. 
Neabing, Scott, on the traditional 

school, 218. 
Need, 

and culture-epoch theory, 25- 

27. 
and handwork, 375-376. 
Needs, present. Chapter Eight. 
New England Primer, quotations 

from, 428. 
New York Orphan Asylum, 126. 

Observation, Chapter Thirteen. 

Organization, 

Chapter Eleven. 

in correlation, 203. 

in handwork projects, 374-375. 

in school management, 140. 
O'Shea, M. v., 

on social efficiency, 85. 

on spelUng, 58. 



Outlines for school work, Chapter 
Seventeen. 

Page, W. H., on school and com- 
munity, 48. 
Part-time cooperative school, 120- 

121. 
Payne, R. B., 283. 
People's Institute of New York, 256. 
Persistence, 166, 457-458. 
Personal problem, 163, 457. 
Pestalozzi, on arithmetic, 26. 
Pictures for leisure, 339-340. 
Play, 

general discussion. Chapter Four- 
teen. 
enjoyed by children, 7. 
at home, 152-153. 
as leisure, 267-269. 
misuse of, 178-187, 432-433. 
Pleasant, school made, 186. 
Pleasure in stories, 364-365. 
Poetry, 339-340. 
Politics, school, 83-84. 
Practical, the, 105, 129, 173, 368- 

369. 
Preparation, as the nature of the 
traditional curriculum, Chapter 
Eight. 
Prerequisites in studies, 245-246. 
Present needs. Chapter Eight, 11- 

12. 
Prevocational work, 123. 
Primitive Life, 24. 
Principles, 

governing adaptation and adoption, 

76-77, 482-486. 
governing curriculum proposed, 

137, 171, 207, 237, 255. 
governing efficiency in school and 

out, 162-166, 456-458. 
governing general methods, 425- 

426. 
governing materials, methods, mo- 
tives, 424, 430, 437. 
governing measurement of school 
work, 462-465. 
Private schools, 110-117. 
Program. See Schedule. 
Projects, 373-377. 
Promotion in school, 216, 245, 249. 



INDEX 



537 



Psychological differences, 219-220. 
Psychologist, the, 76. 
Psychologize, as a method, 74. 
Puffer, J. A., on boys, gangs, activi- 
ties, 36, 97, 54-55, 258, 264. 
Purpose, 

in elementary schools, 85-87, 151- 

154, 316-317. 
in subject matter, 422-423. 

Rank of pupils, 449. 
Rapeer, L. W., 59. 
Reading, 

beginnings of, 418. 

conduct of, in classroom, 28, 
349-354, 358-363. 

discipline of, 28-29. 

inadequacy of, in traditional school, 
341-343. 

measurement of, 465-468. 

out of school, 175. 

preparatory character of, 139-140. 
Real Diary of a Real Boy, 4. 
Recapitulation, 333-334. See also 

Culture epoch. 
Recess, 261-265. 
Recitation, 18, 213-214, 425-426. 

in form of conference, 18, 231, 
299. 
Recreation, 99-100, 306-307. 
Reeder, R. R., on traditional curricu- 
lum, 126. 
Religious life, 104. 

Retardation, 9, 43, 46-49, 144, 147. 
Reviews, 67. 
Rural education, 98-101, 239-240. 

San Diego Normal School, 113. 
Schedule, 245, 260, 269-270, 291, 
326-327, 357-358, 377-378, 
482=-486. 
School, 

arts, 31. See also Three R's. 
building, 16-17. 
and out of school, 5-10. 
and social demands, 178-196. 
Science, elementary, 128-129. See 
also Books, classification of, 
and methods of reading. 
Scientific movement, 441-442. 



Secondary schools, 120-124. 

Shady Hill Country Day School, 
114. 

Silent reading, 358, 360-361. 

Smith, D. E., on arithmetic, 26. 

Smith-Hughes Act, 60, 131. 

Smith-Lever Act, 60, 131. 

Snedden, D. See Dutton and Sned- 
don. 

Social Center Guild of America, 256. 

Social demand and the school, 178- 
196. 

Social problems and the curriculum, 
Chapter Six. 

Society and the workingman, 257- 
258. 

Socialize, as a method, 73. 

Sociologist and Education, 76, 87, 89. 

Spaulding, F. E., on Portland sur- 
vey, 200-201. 

Special schools, 224-225. 

Spelling, 10, 29, 57-58, 140. 

Speyer School, 117. 

Standard, 

and average, 12, 207-208. 
and course of study, 421-422. 

Standard tests, 441. 

Standardization, 214-215, 461. 

Starch, D., 
on reading, 59. 
on spelling, 58. 

Statistical studies, 42. See also 
M easurement . 

Stone, C. W., on arithmetic, 57. 

Stoner, Winifred, on games, 183. 

Stories for leisure, Chapter Fifteen. 

Story hour, conduct of, 256-263. 

Strater, G. D., on Butte survey, 55. 

Study, 164-165, 296-300, 327-328, 
457, 460-461. 

Subject matter, 

general discussion. Chapter Eight- 
een (Material). 
as a means of interpretation and 

guidance, 420, 423. 
in terms of life activities, 227-229. 
<See also Curriculum. 

Suzzallo, H., 57, 58-59, 427. 

Teaching, modes and means of. 
See Method. 



538 



INDEX 



Tendencies in education, Chapter 

Seven, 284. 
Tentative attitude, 166, 458. 
Tests. iSee Examinations. 
Textbooks, 18, 161-162, 212-213, 

298, 359-360. 
Theories of play, 331-335. 
Thoendike, E. T., 

on individual differences, 220, 234. 

on the school as selective agency, 
143. 

on reading, 59, 460. 
Thoroughness, 248. 
Three R's, 

and formal discipline, 30-31. 

and immediate needs, 144. 

and intelligence, 301. 

and life out of school, 41, 97-98, 
100, 204, 458. 

nature of, 21, 418-419. 

and observation, 300. 

and play, 317-318. 

as school aim, 17, 21, 133-134. 

source of, 417-418. 

and teachers, 84-85. 

See also Curriculum, traditional. 
Travel. See Books, classification of, 

aTid methods of reading. 
Travis, T., on juvenile offenders, 

274. 
Tyler, J. M., on play, 328. 



Uniformity in traditional curriculum, 
208-218. 

Universities and changes in educa- 
tional practice, 117-120. 

University High School, 452-455. 



Values, 

relative, 203, 247-248, 416-417. 

social, 49, 195-196. 
Variation, Chapter Ten, 278-281. 
Veblen, T., on leisure, 255. 
Vermont survey, 56. 
Village improvement, 104. 
Vitalize, as a method, 73-74, 289. 
Vocational 

activities, 44. 

guidance, 290. 

instruction, 121, 131-132, 286-287. 

interests, 176, 189. 

Warner, C. D., on boy life, 3, 100, 

263-264, 307-308. 
Wasteful, 67, 242. 

Wilson, H. B. and G. M., on motiva- 
tion, 432-435. 
Wilson, W. H., on country life, 99, 

257. 
Wilson, Woodrow, on problems of 

community and national life, 

461-462. 
Withdrawal 

from school. Chapter Three. 
and junior high school, 242. 
and public needs, 142. 
WooDHULL, J. F., on elementary 

science, 162. 
Work, Chapter Twelve, 3, 152-154, 

337. 
Workingmen in leisure time, 257- 

258. 
Writing and written work, 188, 299. 

Yerkes, R. M., on recapitulation, 
25. 



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